Getting Beyond Survive To Thrive At Work

Guest post by Eileen Habelow:

According to Randstad’s 2009 World of Work survey, an alarming number of workers surveyed (83%) feel fortunate to have a job. Why do I say alarming?

While this sentiment might simply be an expression of gratitude for some, I believe it is just as likely that this response reflects a distinct undertone of survival mentality – just grateful, just thankful, just fortunate.

So, what is the impact of survival mentality? Survival mentality tends to put people into a defensive mode – a reactive and protective stance. When employees are in survival mode, they are constantly looking over their shoulders or in the proverbial rearview mirror for the other shoe to drop. The impact is lower productivity and less focus on the job.

Adding to the premise of a survival mentality is fear. The same survey also revealed that 52 percent fear for their economic well-being! This response alone provides a clear picture of the roller coaster of emotions that employees bring into the workplace. Couple fear with a steady diet of predominately negative news – job losses, dwindling consumer confidence, institutions in financial turmoil, recession – and the recipe is the same: lower productivity and less focus on the job at hand.

So, how do we help employees get from survive to thrive with the swirling of negativity all around? What can we do to encourage the language of an environment that thrives? How can we facilitate or create a workforce that has a forward-looking, windshield outlook instead of a rearview mirror viewpoint? The answer is communicate, communicate and communicate some more!

Tell them all that you can tell them. Paranoia is a killer! During a tough time at work, silence is NOT golden and no news is NOT good news! When employers leave ‘dead air’ in the workplace instead of open communication lines, paranoia will set in; and with paranoia comes the survival mentality I previously mentioned. There is always something that can be communicated to the workforce even if it is ‘no decisions have been made, but we are working on it’. While there will always be information and news that cannot be shared, make sure to share what you can. This communication helps to keep employees from wondering what just happened and what might happen next. Over communicate during a tough time and be as transparent as possible to keep your employees informed.

Pay close attention to your top performer. Often times, we assume that our best employees already know that they are the best and that they must know how important they are to the company. Wrong. How many times has your company been surprised by the exit of a key performer after it was too late to convince him or her to stay? Even the most confident performers can have doubtful moments during a tough economic time. Sales, results, growth and profit can all be down for even the best formers so it’s critical for your most important employees to know (for sure) that they are valued and why they are valued. This can be as simple as a personal conversation that discusses the employee’s value and seeks to discover what is most important to them at the moment. Bottom line: make sure the employees you value most know that they are valued.

Be clear about why some are gone and why some are still here. Honesty is the best policy. You may think that you are saving face for those who have been let go, but while you may soften the blow (very temporarily, by the way) of those who exit, you could be doing damage to the perceptions of those who are left. If every layoff brings a company line of ‘it was just a business necessity’, those who survive the layoff may NOT know why they are still around. You know what comes next…they are ‘just grateful’ to have a job. Consider instead communicating specifics around why decisions were made and what impact those decisions will have on those who remain. Of course you can customize the reasons for your situation, but the key is telling employees why they are still here and why they are valuable to the company. That alone can encourage employees to look forward for the next goal without feeling a sense of guilt or speculating as to why some are gone.

Avoid credibility killers. When talking with employees, you are representing the company as a leader. Avoid using phrases like ‘the company’ or ‘upper management’ – they are surefire credibility killers. Another quick credibility killer is ‘the boss and I really think you need to get your game together’. Every time you bring someone else into the room for a tough conversation (literally or figuratively), it may make the conversation easier for you, and you may even think it softens the blow, but consider how you instantly demote yourself when you relegate the decision to someone higher up. You may even inadvertently communicate that you are not the leader your position suggests you should be.

Focus on the goals and be clear about the role. Find a common destination or a shared goal that is guaranteed to get employees looking forward, through the windshield. Then get all employees moving in the same direction toward the goal by establishing clear roles and expectations for each employee. Again, this focus will get your employees looking forward and help each employee be clear about what they bring to the table.

Dr. Eileen Habelow is the Senior Vice President of Organizational Development at Randstad US. Eileen’s formal education has been focused on instructional design and educational psychology. Her professional experience has ranged from learning and development, sales and operations, and organizational effectiveness.

10 Ways to Get the Most from a 360 Degree Leadership Assessment

A 360 degree leadership assessment is one of the most effective ways to get feedback from your employees, peers, and managers against a set of pre-defined leadership competencies.

Having debriefed these for hundreds of managers, and taken a number of different 360s myself, I’ve discovered some best practices that have worked for me and others.

Here are 10 tips for getting the most value from a 360 degree leadership assessment:

1. Mentally prepare yourself.
You have to go into these things with the right frame of mind. Don’t get all worked up dreading the results and hoping no one says anything bad about you. Instead, go into it with the objective of unlocking the secrets of what you need to do to become a better leader.

2. Don’t try to figure it out yourself.
This is critical. Any responsible program or organization wouldn’t implement a 360 degree feedback process without offering assistance with making sense of the data. Even though I may know the instrument inside and out, I still will sit down with a coach, a colleague, or my manager to review it with me. When you’re too close to the data it’s way too easy to miss something. It’s human nature – we sometimes see what we want to see, are too hard on ourselves, or make assumptions that others would not make. If anything, having someone to talk through it with just provides emotional support.

3. Don’t play detective.
Don’t waste time trying to figure out who made a comment or who rated you high or low. Unless it’s your manager’s rating, the reports are designed to protect the raters. Too managers make assumptions – and I’ve done it myself – and have been wrong. Just take each comment and rating for what it is – data – and focus your energy on what you’re going to do about it.

4. Holistically of systematically?
There’s two ways to sort through all of the ratings and comments. Some managers take a more holistic approach – they take it all in, let it marinate, and come up with themes, patterns, connections, and trends. It’s like an art to them. Other managers prefer to take a more analytical, systematic approach. They focus on the statistically significant differences (and I can barely explain what that even means) and their own complex algorithms in order to make sense of it all. There is no right way – they both work. Use whatever method works for you, and don’t let someone force you to use a method that doesn’t fit your style.
Also – while comments are important – don’t get too hung up on a single comment, especially if the ratings and rest of the report don’t support the comment. It’s this tendency to overreact to a single comment that has caused some 360 providers not to use them. Personally, I find value in them, when taken for what they are – a single data point.

5. Pay attention to and celebrate your strengths!
No, really, this is not just a cliché. I’ve had managers completely dismiss what I thought were some awesome strengths. That’s another reason why it’s better to have someone go through the results with you. Unfortunately, leaders don’t always get to hear about what they are doing right. These strengths can also play a part in figuring out how to overcome or work around weaknesses.

6. Look for blind spots and differences.
Blind spots are areas where you’ve rated yourself higher than others have. This could either be due to lack of self-awareness, or a marketing problem. Either way, they may need to be addressed. Differences in ratings between rater groups may mean you’re showing up differently depending on the situation. Perhaps your manager sees you as a great listener and your employees don’t. In this example, it’s not an issue of not knowing how to listen – you’re just choosing who you listen too. It could be more of a respect issue.

7. Absolute vs. relative scores?
If a “4” on a seven point scale is defined as “good”, and your lowest score is a 5.5, does that mean you don’t have any development needs? No, not unless every single one of your scores is a perfect 7. Anything less means there’s room for improvement. Some organizations or groups of employees tend to rate their manager’s higher. Focus on your own relative strengths and weaknesses, not what the rating scale says.

8. Find 2-3 things to improve.
When all is said and done, the objective is to find 2-3 leadership behaviors:
A. Where you have opportunity to get better
B. That are important to improve, i.e., they will make a difference in your success
C. You are motivated to improve.
Why 2-3? Actually, there’s no science behind that number. If something is really going to be hard for you to improve, than one is enough. Other times, you can improve more than 2-3 things if they are related or easy to learn. But for simplicity, people seem to buy-in to 2-3.

9. Make a plan and take action.
360s are great input to an individual development plan. However, don’t just keep the plan to yourself – share it with others. These two steps – having a written plan and sharing it with others – have proved through research to be the single biggest differentiators of those who have taken a 360 and improved and those that have not improved. Follow-up and thank those that have provided you feedback and let them know what you’re going to work on to improve your ability as a leader.

10. Follow-up.
If possible, take another assessment 12-18 months later. That’s about how long it’s going to take for people to notice any improvement in behavior. You don’t have to take the entire assessment again – just the questions relevant to the areas you are trying to improve.

Asking for feedback takes a lot of courage, and it’s a big investment of a lot of people’s time. Follow these tips and you’ll get the most ROI for the effort.

The November 1st Leadership Development Carnival

Welcome to the day after Halloween, too much candy hangover, take the leftovers to work, full moon, November 1st edition of the Leadership Development Carnival.

There's no bottom of the treat bag dum-dums in this edition - nothing but full-size snicker bars.

So grab your candy bag and get ready to fill it up with some sweet advice, opinions, and ideas from some of your favorite leadership bloggers.

You can also follow many of these bloggers on Twitter by using this Twitter group, courtesy of Becky Robinson.

We lead off with Wally Bock presenting Let’s hear it for the role models posted at Momentor.

Next up is Mary Jo Asmus presenting Choosing posted at Mary Jo Asmus.

Anne Perschel presents Never Waste A Good Recession posted at Germane Insights.

Steve Roesler presents Team Leaders: Do You Do This? posted at All Things Workplace.

Becky Robinson presents Leading in Relationships posted at Mountain State University LeaderTalk.

Ideas for leaders to ponder when using metaphors to inspire followers: Jennifer V. Miller presents In the Family Way posted at Jennifer V. Miller.

Mark Stelzner presents What Costume Are You Wearing? posted at Inflexion Point.

Chris Young presents Maximize Possibility Blog: Are You a Victim of "Satisfactory" Performance? posted at Maximize Possibility Blog.

Bret L. Simmons presents Leadership Integrity: Touchy-Feely Crap? » Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior posted at Bret L. Simmons - Positive Organizational Behavior.

Can you teach someone to be a great leader? Or does something else have to happen? Wally Bock presents Can leadership be taught? posted at Three Star Leadership Blog.

Mike Myatt presents CEO Success...It's not Random posted at N2Growth Blog.

Everyday management lessons from a popular reality TV show: Sharlyn Lauby presents What I've Learned About Business From Mike Rowe posted at HR Bartender.

This post is a description of my most recent personal journey to do hard things: Michael Ray Hopkin presents Do hard things posted at Lead on Purpose.

Adi Gaskell presents How far are you spreading your talent web? posted at The Management Blog.

Alice Snell presents Home Grown Leaders Get Respect posted at Taleo Blog - Talent Management Solutions.

This is a list of the 7 books that were most influential in my develop as a leader: Tom Glover presents 7 Books That Made Me the Leader I Am Today posted at Reflection Leadership.

Some important takeaways from the recent "Talent Management Challenge" around Strengths focus and Self-assessments: Amy Wilson presents A Couple Things to Learn about Leadership posted at TalentedApps.

The most important actions that foster engagement aren't rocket science; they just require a little consideration and common sense. Miki Saxon presents Ducks In A Row: The 7 Word Genius Of Engagement : Leadership Turn - Articles, tips, and resources about leadership. posted at Leadership Turn.

Lisa Rosendahl presents On NOT Making a Decision posted at Lisa Rosendahl.

Building the bench is not reserved for good economic times. It is just as critical when times are tough and is a critical leadership responsibility. Tom Magness presents Building the Bench posted at Leader Business.

Chris Young presents Maximize Possibility Blog: Are You a Victim of "Satisfactory" Performance? posted at Maximize Possibility Blog.

Bill Matthies presents Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By.

Janna Rust presents Leadership & Management: What's the Difference? posted at Purposeful Leadership.

If you're looking to develop leadership talent in your organization, start by getting the support of your top executives. According to the preliminary results of i4cp's major new study on leadership competencies, conducted in partnership with the American Management Association, executive support is the number-one factor that contributes to proper leadership development. Erik Samdahl presents It Takes Good Leadership to Develop Good Leaders - i4cp posted at Productivity Blog.

As more and more followers yearn for their leaders to be real, this post explores what steps are needed to lead with authority. Eric Pennington presents So Many Masks, So Little Time posted at Epic Living - Leadership Development Career Management Training Executive Life Coaching Author.

Management must strive to transform their organizations into engaged and authentic communites during the next 10 years. David Zinger presents Henry Mintzberg on Creating a Community of Employee Engagement posted at David Zinger Associates.

Anna Farmery presents Who is at the centre of your world? posted at The Engaging Brand.

Wayne Turmel presents Why can't IT speak our language? posted at TPN :: The Cranky Middle Manager Show.

Silence truly is golden, it allows your mind to soar, explore and be creative; it also encourages you to become friends with yourself. Miki Saxon presents MAPping Company Success posted at MAPping Company Success.

Nick McCormick presents Ready to Take ?The Leap?? posted at Joe and Wanda on Management.

There are many theories on every aspect of leadership. The reason for this amount of theories is that leadership is complex and variant. Given the importance of effective leaders in any organization, the companies try to ask many questions for evaluating leadership characteristics of a candidate. Nissim Ziv presents Leadership Interview Questions and Answers: Examples of Skills for Leaders posted at Job Interview & Career Guide.

Dan's note: this one's a little off the theme of leadership, but it's a great list of writing resources: Barbara Williams presents The Ultimate Guide to Better Business Writing: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources posted at Online Degree Programs.org.

Albie presents Your personality affects your global leadership style posted at iDevelopWorld.

Bill Bubenicek presents 10 Ways To Get A Seat On A Small Business Advisory Board posted at BoardMyBiz.com.

Here are a few tips to help you create powerful presence when you open any presentation: Angela DeFinis presents Create a Powerful Presence posted at DeFinis Communications.

Kara Wirt presents Good questioner = good person posted at Dr. G.

Linda Jones presents 101 Business Books Everyone Can Learn From posted at AccreditedOnlineColleges.org.

This post is about how managers can help survivors of layoffs and keep them productive and committed to the company: Aaron Windeler presents Helping survivors through layoffs: the importance of feeling in control posted at Scientific Management.

Trent Cotton presents 7 Ways to Increase Morale and Productivity posted at Helping Businesses Succeed.

Wise_Bread presents How to Get Laid Off by a Step by Step Guide posted at Wisebread.

Karthik Raj G presents What makes a good leader? posted at KARTHIK RAJ G.

I became more productive and focused throughout my day by waking up earlier. Learn the techniques I used to accomplish much more with my business. Ralph Jean-Paul presents How To Wake Up Early Without Hating It: My 3 A.M. Experiment posted at Potential 2 Success.

Leaders need to be sure they are taking care of themselves, so they can bring the most benefit to others. Erin Schreyer presents Be the Best You, To Be the Best Leader posted at Authentic Leadership.

When hiring new employees, jargon specific to the workplace should not be used or explained up front. Dallas Bragg presents Watch that Workplace Jargon! posted at Developing Daily.

Jane Perdue presents Losing Your Leadership Wings posted at Life, Love & Leadership.

Bob Lieberman presents The Identity Crisis posted at Cultivating Creativity – Developing Leaders for the Creative Economy.

Albie presents 10 Reasons why you should keep a journal posted at iDevelopWorld.

This blog posts discusses how to manage whining into a constructive activity: Elyse presents How to manage Whining with no Problem Solving posted at Anticlue.

That's it for this month's edition! Next month's Carnival will be December 6 , 2009, hosted by Mark Stelzner, at Inflexion Point. Use the Carnival Submission Form to submit your post.

How to Infuse Coaching Skills into a Manager

After taking the recent Talent Management Challenge, a reader commented:

“Suggestion for your next blog post - How do you improve career coaching and development at your organization when your managers are bad at it and don't have time to get better (ha - and they don't think they need to get better, nor do they have the time!)?”

The reader was referring to solid, beyond a shadow of a doubt research that says managers, in general, are lousy at coaching and developing their people.

As if that fact isn’t depressing enough, what makes it even worse is a whole body of other research that proves just how well effective coaching hits the bottom line. For example, a 2007 Corporate Executive Board study found that sales reps receiving great coaching reach on average 102% of goal in contrast to sales reps reporting poor coaching who achieve only 83% of goal. Good coaching can improve bottom performance by 19%!

Coaching is not just a “nice to do” – it’s a proven productivity driving, revenue growing, high impact management activity.

So if it works…. why don’t more managers do it? And why are they so bad at it?

There are four reasons:

1. They don’t understand how effective it is in improving performance.

2. They don’t have time. While “lack of time” may be just a symptom of reason #1, it’s also a reality that most managers these days are terminally busy and have difficulty finding time to eat, let alone coach.

3. It’s hard to learn. In fact, it’s one of the most difficult leadership competencies to learn.

4. Poor execution. Managers often spend too much time coaching poor performers at the expense of the “B” performers who would benefit from it the most. Or, they apply the same process to all employees equally.

Given this stark reality, what’s an organization to do? How can we infuse coaching skills into an organization’s managers? Here are four ideas:

1. Help managers understand the importance of coaching.
Stop trying to convince them it’s the “right thing to do” in order to improve employee satisfaction. Show them the research and the ROI. Make it a business case, not an HR driven social agenda.

2. Set expectations and help align their priorities.
Establish clear, measurable, non-negotiable expectations. Then get rid of all the lower priority stuff that’s filling up their days. We can’t just tell managers coaching is important and hold them accountable for it, and not eliminate the non-value activities that are often driven by their own managers and HR. BTW, I didn't even bother suggesting "adding it to their performance appraisals". It already is, and that's never made a difference.

3. Teach them how to do it.
While it’s hard, it’s not impossible. Good managers are not born with a coaching gene… they are good at it because they know what key behaviors make the most difference and they practice those behaviors relentlessly. There is no 3x5 laminated card short-cut solution to teaching and learning coaching skills – it’s a significant investment of time and effort.

4. Use internal and external experts.
Create a pool of internal and external coaches as a temporary or permanent “work-around”. These experts could be from HR, training, professional external coaches, or anyone that has a knack and passion for bringing out the best in others. Over time, this capability can’t help but be transferred… it’s a quicker way to infuse an organization with coaching expertise, while you are building your manager’s skills at the same time.

5. Try the Vulcan Mind Meld.
Just be careful, it's tricky. Too much be can physically debilitating for both parties.

While these solutions may sound overly simple (except for the mind meld), the devil is in the details. It’s going to take a lot of commitment and hard work. We just need to ask ourselves: would it be worth an almost 20% productivity improvement or increase in revenue? If so, then let’s get to work.

Great Leadership 2 Year Anniversary Celebration!

Two years ago today, October 28, 2007, I launched Great Leadership. 445 posts and counting.

Once again I'm going to skip the usual lengthy reflections, "best of" lists, and thanking the members of the academy. 95% of my readers would find it boring, and there would be just way too many people to thank.

The one thing I did want to share is an answer to a question my blogging friend Scott Eblin asked me over a year ago. Scott's an executive coach, and probably because he just can't help himself, he asked me one of those deep, reflective questions that good coaches often do - "So tell me Dan, what are your goals for blogging?"

I really couldn't come up with a good answer for Scott. If I were being completely honest with myself, I'd probably have listed a number of self-centered reasons for blogging, like becoming rich & famous, advancing my career, a sense of achievement, building my network, and my own personal learning and development.

While to some extent, all of those goals are true. But after two years, I've finally figured out what really drives me to do this.... it's to help develop great leaders. Period. It's important to me - I feel like I'm making a difference in the lives of a lot of leaders and aspiring leaders. The rest is all secondary.

OK, enough of that. I was pleased to hear from Jessica Lee last night that Great Leadership was selected as one of Fistful of Talent's top 30 blogs. I'm honored to be included on such an awesome list of talent management blogs. Take a look at the list - it's a good one - and add them to your regular reading list.

Also, stop by and have a beverage with Sharlyn Lauby, your HR Bartender. Sharlyn's hosting the latest spooky edition of the HR Carnival, with posts from about 30 of the best HR bloggers around. Take a good look at the rest of Sharlyn's blog too while you're at it - she's a rising HR blogging star (#5 on the Fistful of Talent ranking!).

Lastly, I'll be hosting the November edition of the Leadership Development Carnival this Sunday, November 1st. If you'd like to submit a post, please use the Carnival submission form.

Senior moment note: the first version of this post said 3 years... it's only been 2. Sure seemed like 3.

Leading with Courage: Run Toward the Roar

Guest post by Emmett C. Murphy:

When antelopes hear the sound of a lion’s roar their instinct tells them to run in the opposite direction. Doing so, however, means they run to almost certain death because lions expect their prey to do just that. The male of the pride anticipates where the antelope will run while the lionesses lie in ambush opposite the male. When the lion roars, a startled antelope runs directly into the jaws of the waiting lionesses.

When faced with threats to our happiness or security, we humans all too often run away from the “roar” of daily life only to find, later, the threats returning or compounding. Effective leaders realize that survival and success lie in having the courage to confront threats. At moments in our lives we are called to account in a way that forces us to decide whether we will stand for our values. While we appreciate the need for courage in other areas of our lives, we may not appreciate how much courage it takes to lead in the workplace. The following practices of effective leaders all take courage. They are not all instinctual, however. Many must be learned.

Empower the Frontlines

The “ivory tower” mentality of many chief executives amounts to cowardice. Effective leaders regularly meet with and solicit information from frontline employees, seeking them out and approaching them even when it feels awkward or unnecessary. As Deborah Dunshire, M.D., chief of Millennium: the Takeda Oncology Company, says, “If you never have direct access, or don’t create those forums, you can have a divergence between what you believe is the case in the organization and what actually is. I think that’s where organizations lose momentum, lose engagement and start losing great people.” Leaders from Sam Walton to Deborah Dunshire derive success from talking regularly, openly, and encouragingly with their employees. They seek “direct access” to information, which engages and empowers informed employees.

Resolve Conflicts

It’s easy enough to say that you shouldn’t run away from conflicts. The reason so many of us do, however, is because we treat resolving conflicts as an A versus B scenario. A contest of wills. A question of who is going to be torn apart. Rather than framing conflict negotiation in win-lose terms, effective leaders approach conflicts from a problem-solving perspective. Often individuals in conflict have lost sight of the customer—the reason they are there. Conflict resolution then aims to focus the warring parties on their shared interest—the customer’s interest. Rather paradoxically, by directing attention away from self-interest, leaders can actually help individuals gain insight into their own behavior. When leaders move away from “win-lose” talk they can often see a problem that needs solving—a reality—beyond the viewpoints of A and B.

Communicate Responsibility

Facing a person one-on-one to help clarify his or her responsibility takes courage. The difficulty comes, in part, from the fact that when a person fails to take responsibility for his or her work it often indicates a deeper problem. Maybe someone fails to hand in a report because that person hasn’t been supplied with all the necessary documents. Maybe someone neglects the long lines at the cash register because she’s been asked to take on too much responsibility in the back storeroom. Expecting someone to take responsibility for his or her work does not mean expecting that person to take on whatever you throw at them but it does mean expecting them to take responsibility for what they can and cannot manage. A person who takes on more than he or she can handle is acting irresponsibly. The person who takes on too much responsibility in the back storeroom, knowing her primary responsibility is at the cash register, fails to “own” her job. While it takes courage to confront an employee about his or her productivity, the message about taking responsibility aims to empower and give the employee a greater sense of control.

Take Responsibility Yourself

My model of a responsible adult and a tremendous leader is my friend and client Marliese Mitchell. Mitchell started her professional career as a nurse, earned an MBA at Harvard, worked her way up the ladder, and eventually took a job as president of the world’s biggest international hospital consulting firm. On her first assignment in this position she visited a hospital in Singapore where she heard some disturbing rumors about the sale of baby boys. Instead of running from the news, Mitchell decided to work incognito as a staff nurse to learn for herself whether the rumors were true. What she discovered about the hospital practices was worse than she imagined and led to criminal convictions backed by the World Health Organization and the United Nations, among others. When Mitchell heard the roar she ran toward it despite the dangers. Her story involves so much physical courage and personal integrity that I want everyone to read it, maybe more than once; I tell it in nearly every book I write. In Mitchell’s situation, the peril of confronting the roar may have at first seemed equal to the peril of ignoring it. Despite the great moral imperative, some might wonder why Mitchell took the risk. In fact, ignoring the problem, Mitchell realized, could have eventually cost her more: her job, the respect of employees and clients, and her integrity.

All of these acts of courage involve confronting someone or something directly—frontliners, individuals in conflict, irresponsible associates, or your own values. Here’s the simple logic: threats rarely disappear on their own so running from them won’t help. Facing them will get you much further.

Emmett Murphy, Ph.D., is Founder and President of Murphy Leadership, a global leadership consultancy. Murphy is the author of several books including Talent IQ. He is currently at work on his new book, Entrepreneurial IQ.

The Talent Management Challenge Winners!

Last week I ran a contest sponsored by Lominger based on the book 100 Things You Need to Know: Best People Practices for Managers & HR.

I pulled 10 questions from the book and offered a free copy for two winners. I received 34 submissions from around the world. Only ONE person got all 10 right..... and the winner is:

Cindy Blackwell! Congratulations Cindy, you know your people practices.

The next closest were Amy Wilson and Marty Jordan, each with 8 right answers. I used random.org to select: Amy Wilson.

It was easy to "grade" the answers as they came in... most people didn't just get a few wrong, they got most of the questions wrong. Lominger uses a 1-5 "degree of certainty" scale for each answer, based on the amount of research to support the answer. I only used questions with the highest degree of certainty, so there were no "maybe" answers here.

Look, I'm not trying to put my readers down here. Most of my readers are HR pros, consultants, executive coaches, and savvy managers. As I read the book, I was guessing right less than 50% of the time myself. I ran my own contest with my team - all seasoned talent management practitioners - and the best score was a 6. I had lunch with a colleague last week - a university organizational development professor and experienced practitioner - and he was pretty surprised by the answers too.

Does this tell us anything about how we manage people? Are many of our sacred "truths" just plain wrong?

I read an interesting story by Sharon Begley in Newsweek in which she aks why psychologists seem to reject science. She writes:

For years, psychologists who conduct research have lamented what they see as an antiscience bias among clinicians, who treat patients. But now the gloves have come off. In a two-years-in-the-making analysis to be published in November in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, psychologists led by Timothy B. Baker of the University of Wisconsin charge that many clinicians fail to "use the interventions for which there is the strongest evidence of efficacy" and "give more weight to their personal experiences than to science." As a result, patients have no assurance that their "treatment will be informed by science." Walter Mischel of Columbia University, who wrote an accompanying editorial, is even more scathing. "The disconnect between what clinicians do and what science has discovered is an unconscionable embarrassment," he told me, and there is a "widening gulf between clinical practice and science."

Wow. Could we be guilty of the same level of managerial malpractice when it comes to how we teach managers how to manage people? Are we ignoring the science of talent management and over-relying on our experience? Given how proud I am that my blogging is based on "practical experience", I'd be one of the first targets of this accusation.

Anyway, not to be too much of a buzz-kill, the contest was just meant to be fun and stimulate some good discussion. The correct answers are below, along with implications.

The Talent Management Challenge Answers:

1. Who is the least accurate judge of a manager’s job performance?

D. Self.

Relying on self-ratings for job improvement and career development would not be a sound practice. Almost anyone else's rating would be more accurate.

2. What is the relationship between being smart (having a high IQ) and the ability to manage others effectively?

C. There is a small relationship; it helps but not much.

Most people overvalue smarts as a predictor of managerial success. While it's not unimportant, it isn't worth the weight that most give it.

3. How accurate are the ratings on formal performance appraisal evaluations?

A. People get higher ratings than they really deserve; ratings are generally inflated.

Most studies show that 85 to 95 percent are rated at or above average in formal performance appraisal processes. So we need to discount the value of these ratings.

4. What is the effect on others of a person asking for and seeking negative feedback?

C. Others think more positively of the person.

The people who look for more feedback, especially negative feedback, are usually more self-aware, self-assured, and perform better because they have more insight into their development needs.

5. How skilled are managers, in general, at being good coaches and helping others develop their long-term careers?

E. Managers, in general, are very poor at coaching and developing their people.

Relying exclusively on line managers to coach and develop their people for the long-term is a losing strategy.

6. What is the most likely outcome of people focusing exclusively on developing their strengths and doing only those jobs that match their strengths?

D. Strengths are likely to be overdone or not balanced, and unaddressed weaknesses would become blind spots.

I've posted on this topic here and here. At least I got one answer right. (-:

7. How do high performers rate themselves compared to low performers?

D. Rate themselves lower than others do and lower than low performers.

Self-ratings are suspect in a number of ways. Lower performers overrate and higher performers underrate.

8. What percentage of high potentials succeed after they are promoted?

C. About 50% continue to be successful.

If the call on potential is correct to begin with, the success rate would be higher.

9. What most often gets managers and executives terminated?

C. Poor self-knowledge and relationships.

We need to make sure high potentials get feedback, coaching, and mentoring early in their careers.

10. What’s the most effective long-term talent acquisition path to follow?

B. To the extent possible, it’s better to build your own talent and go outside.

In general, about an 80/20 mix (internal to external) is a good strategy.

So what do you think? Please comment on your opinion about the contest results, and/or any of the answers and implications.

Heard Any Good News Lately?

I’ve been looking into the field of positive psychology lately, participating in a pilot program and reviewing some of the research.

For the regular readers of Great Leadership, who have gotten to know my “no nonsense” pragmatic approach to leadership development, this may come as somewhat of a surprise. I’m also personally not the touchy feely type, so this has been a bit of a stretch for me.

This is not some wacky leadership development flavor of the month. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve learned, and think a lot of it can be applied to leadership. In a very practical way, of course. (-:

Here’s one aspect of positive psychology: How you react to someone’s good news can hurt or improve the relationship.

When an employee (or a peer, or anyone) comes to you with good news, how do you respond? Do they walk away feeling satisfied, inspired, and motivated? As leaders, that’s what we strive for, right? Or do they walk away feeling de-motivated?

You may be surprised to discover you may be wasting an opportunity – even worse, harming the relationship – and not even realizing it. Let’s dig a little into positive psychology to find out why.

Shelly Gable, who is an associate professor of psychology at University of California, Santa Barbara, works on the positive psychology of love and marriage. Most psychologists who research marriage work on problems. They focus on how a couple responds when something bad happens.

Gable takes a different approach. She works on what makes a marriage great, and her approach can apply to anybody who wants to improve a relationship – at work or at home.

Here’s an example to illustrate the concept. How you would respond if your significant other tells you that he or she has just been promoted?

1. Do you react enthusiastically (active-constructive)? "Hey, that’s fantastic news! You must be so proud. How about if we go out and celebrate tonight?”

2. Do you point out the potential problems or down sides of the good event (active-destructive)? "Uh oh, does that mean you’re going to be working longer hours and traveling more?"

3. Do you say little, but convey that you are happy to hear the news (passive-constructive)? "That’s great, honey."

4. Do you seem uninterested (passive-destructive)? "What’s for dinner?"

She calls the first category "Capitalizing," - amplifying the pleasure of the good situation and contributing to an upward spiral of positive emotion. Capitalizing turns out to be the key to strong relationships.

Here’s some more of “the science”: University of Washington researcher John Gottman found that partners in satisfying marriages say at least five times as many positive things to each other as negative things.

Let’s take this back to the workplace and leadership. How do you think your employees would describe your typical responses to their good news?

1. Active/Constructive

My manager usually reacts to my good news enthusiastically – sometimes even more excited than I initially was. I’m often encouraged to “relive the moment”, and he/she takes the time to listen and ask questions.

2. Passive/Constructive

My manager doesn’t make a big deal out of it, but I’m pretty sure is happy for me.

3. Active/Destructive

My manager often finds a problem with my good news – the glass is always only half full.

4. Passive/Destructive

Sometimes I get the impression my manager isn’t paying attention or just doesn’t care much.

As a leader, every interaction with your employees is an opportunity to inspire and motivate. We tend to spend a lot of time teaching managers how to deliver bad news, deal with conflict, deliver constructive feedback, and solve employee concerns.

How about if we discipline ourselves to respond in a positive way to good news? It sounds so easy, but trust me, it's not.

Try it out, and see what happens. What have you got to lose?

30 Challenges That Can Develop Leaders

There is no shortage of developmental challenges a leader could face throughout their careers. Here is a summary of three decades worth of research that describes these challenges. Note the overlap and similarities between the lists.

1988: The Lessons of Experience
The Center for Creative Leadership’s Morgan McCall, Michael Lombardo, and Ann Morrison identified sixteen developmental experiences that have the most impact on a leader’s development. Their findings were published in 1988 in the groundbreaking book “The Lessons of Experience”.

Assignments:
1. Early work experiences: early non-managerial jobs

2. First supervision: first time managing people

3. Starting from scratch: building something from nothing

4. Fix it/turnaround: fixing/stabilizing a failing operation

5. Project/task force: discrete projects and temporary assignments done alone or as a part of a team

6. Scope: increase in numbers of people, dollars, and functions to manage

7. Line to staff switch: moving from line operations to corporate staff roles

Other People:
8. Role models: other people with exceptional (good or bad) qualities

9. Values played out: “snapshots” of chain-of-command behavior that demonstrate individual or corporate values

Hardships:
10. Business failure or mistakes: ideas that failed or deals that fell apart

11. Demotions/missed promotions/lousy jobs: not getting a coveted job or getting exiled

12. Employee performance problem: confronting an employee with a serious performance problem

13. Breaking a rut: taking on a new career in response to discontent with the current job

14. Personal traumas: crises and traumas such as divorce, illness, and death

Other events:
15. Coursework: formal courses

16. Purely personal: experiences outside of work

2001: The Leadership Pipeline
The Leadership Pipeline was based on work originally done at General Electric in the 1970s by Walt Mahler, an HR consultant and trainer. Mahler identified six different passages and challenges in a leader’s career (“The Crossroads Model”). Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel then applied their expertise in succession planning to write the Leadership Pipeline in 2001.

1. Managing self to managing others
The first passage is from managing elf to managing others. This passage occurs when a person gets promoted to first line manager. The skills required in this position often include planning work, assigning jobs, motivating, coaching, and measuring the jobs of others. Though these skills are all easily learned, first-line managers often encounter difficulties in the change of values required to effectively manage others.

2. Managing others to managing managers
The second passage is from managing others to managing managers. This passage in the leadership pipeline is often ignored due to the assumption that managing others and managing other managers are quite similar. It is important to note that the two are entirely different tasks. Managing managers is a more crucial task and requires the key ability to identify who has the potential to be good leaders. Failure to do so can lead to holding first-line managers for technical work instead of managerial work. This then creates a clog in the leadership pipeline and eventually affects the performance of the organization.

3. Managing managers to functional managers
The third passage is from managing managers to functional managers. This passage is a much tougher transition because it requires an increase in managerial maturity. This means he/she has to learn to let go of previous management work, and instead focus on the functions of the business. The manager also needs to take on a more holistic approach and strategic mindset. This is required for creating functional strategies for the company and managing the whole function of the business.

4. Functional managers to business managers
The fourth passage is from functional managers to business managers. This passage can be one of the most fulfilling and the most satisfying among all the passages because it gives the manager more control and say about the company operations and strategies.
This position also requires a major shift in skills, time applications, and work values. Neglecting these qualities ultimately results to problems such as not valuing and using staff functions, failure to direct and energize finance, and other challenges that may negatively affect the business.

5. Business managers to group managers
The fifth passage is from business managers to group managers. This particular passage places value in the success of other people’s businesses. This focuses on group of businesses, not just one. Therefore, a Group manager is required to become more proficient at evaluating strategies, developing and coaching business managers, creating a portfolio strategy, and correctly assessing the right core capabilities to succeed. The point is to see the company issues in the broadest terms possible. Failure to acquire these skills ultimately results to failure in supporting the business managers.

6. Group managers to enterprise managers
The sixth and final passage is from group managers to enterprise managers. These are the CEOs and presidents of the companies. This passage focuses more on values and skills because this position requires a visionary leader. Enterprise managers would have to let go of the individual products and customers, and see the whole picture. Usually, they are required to set three or four priority goals, and focus on implementing the strategies for these goals. The biggest problem in this passage is that enterprise managers often fail to change their values and mindset. Hence, it is very difficult to develop a CEO for this transition.

2009: The 8 Toughest Transitions for Leaders
Now we have Michael Watkins, author of the First 90 Days. His new book is Your Next Move: The Leader’s Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions. In it, Watkins has identified eight types of career moves that most executives face during their careers.

1. The promotion challenge: Moving to a higher level in the hierarchy and understanding what success looks like at the new level, including issues of focus, delegation, developing leadership competencies and demonstrating presence.

2. The leading-former-peers challenge: An important variant of promotion in which the leader is elevated to manage a team including his or her former peers, with the associated challenges of establishing authority and altering existing relationships.

3. The corporate diplomacy challenge: Moving from a position of authority to one in which effectiveness in influencing others and building alliances is critical.

4. The on-boarding challenge: Joining a new organization and grappling with the need to adapt to a new culture, develop the right political “wiring” and align expectations up, down and sideways.

5. The international move challenge: Leading in an unfamiliar culture while at the same time moving one’s family and creating a new support system.

6. The turnaround challenge: Taking over an organization that is in deep trouble and figuring out how to save it from destruction.

7. The realignment challenge: Confronting an organization that is in denial about the need for change and creating a sense of urgency before emerging problems erupt in a crisis.

8. The business portfolio challenge: Leading an organization in which different parts are at different states — startup, turnaround, accelerated growth, realignment and sustaining success — and figuring out where to focus and how to build momentum.

Take the Talent Management Challenge – Win a Free Book!

I recently purchased a book from Lominger called 100 Things You Need to Know: Best People Practices for Managers & HR.

I’m such a geek, I couldn’t put it down. It’s kind of like a Who Wants to be a Millionaire Game for managers and HR practitioners. I wanted to bring it to a neighborhood party, but Mrs. Great Leadership vetoed that idea. (-:

I thought it would be fun to do a contest to test your knowledge. I contacted Lominger and they’ve given me permission to publish a few questions and will provide a couple free books for the contest – list price is $39.95!

Email me (dmccart3 at rochester dot rr dot com) with your answers to all 10 questions by the end of the day, next Friday, 10/23/09. The first two with all the right answers wins. If no one gets all 10 right, I’ll select and announce the two winners with the most correct answers Monday, 10/26/09, along with the right answers (according to the book) and implications. In case of a tie, I’ll use a random generator to select the winners.

If you’re a real smarty pants and feeling very confident, you can post your answers in the comments section for all to see.

Full disclosure: this is not a paid promotion. I have no business relationship with Lominger other than being an occasional customer.

The Talent Management Challenge

1. Who is the least accurate judge of a manager’s job performance?
A. Boss
B. Peers
C. Direct reports
D. Self
E. Customers

2. What is the relationship between being smart (having a high IQ) and the ability to manage others effectively?
A. There is a strong relationship; the smarter you are, the better manager you can be
B. There is a moderate relationship; the smarter you are, the more likely it is you can manage others well
C. There is a small relationship; it helps but not much
D. There is no relationship; the level of your IQ has nothing to do with how well you can manage others
E. There is a negative relationship; the smarter you are the more likely it is you won’t listen or delegate

3. How accurate are the ratings on formal performance appraisal evaluations?
A. People get higher ratings than they really deserve; ratings are generally inflated
B. Higher performers get inflated ratings but lower performers get accurate ratings
C. Higher performers get accurate ratings but the ratings of lower performers are inflated
D. Everyone gets accurate ratings in general
E. People get lower ratings than they really deserve

4. What is the effect on others of a person asking for and seeking negative feedback?
A. Others often think the person lacks self-confidence
B. Others expect the person to be defensive if they respond and therefore don’t
C. Others think more positively of the person
D. Others respond by actually increasing positive feedback to counter the request
E. It has no measurable impact on others

5. How skilled are managers, in general, at being good coaches and helping others develop their long-term careers?
A. Managers, in general, are outstanding at coaching and helping their people develop
B. Managers, in general, are strong at coaching and helping their people develop
C. Managers, in general, are about average in their ability to develop their people
D. Managers, in general, are not very skilled in helping their people in career development
E. Managers, in general, are very poor at coaching and developing their people

6. What is the most likely outcome of people focusing exclusively on developing their strengths and doing only those jobs that match their strengths?
A. It would only work well for those with the right strengths to begin with
B. People would be happier and more productive because they wouldn’t have to worry about their weaknesses
C. The strengths would get stronger, overwhelming any weaknesses that might get in the way
D. Strengths are likely to be overdone or not balanced, and unaddressed weaknesses would become blind spots
E. More people would become strong performers over time

7. How do high performers rate themselves compared to low performers?
A. Rate themselves higher than others rate them
B. Rate themselves the same as others rate them
C. Rate themselves lower than others do
D. Rate themselves lower than others do and lower than low performers
E. Rate themselves at the same level as low performers

8. What percentage of high potentials succeed after they are promoted?
A. The great majority (90%) are still in place five years later and are successful
B. About 75% continue to be highly successful
C. About 50% continue to be successful
D. About 25% continue to be successful
E. While over 75% stay in their jobs, only 25% could be called successful

9. What most often gets managers and executives terminated?
A. Poor performance
B. Poor future prospects
C. Poor self-knowledge and relationships
D. Poor technical job skills
E. Poor track record overall

10. What’s the most effective long-term talent acquisition path to follow?
A. It’s always better to develop your own talent from within
B. To the extent possible, it’s better to build your own talent and go outside for specialized and temporary needs
C. It’s faster and cheaper to get most of your talent from outside because you can never develop enough internal people to go around
D. It’s always cheaper and faster to buy talent from the outside
E. Developing internal people just leads to increased turnover; it’s a losing game

Go ahead – take the challenge! Better yet, pass it along to your team, your colleagues, or your networks and have a little fun competition. Or, you can work on it together as a team and submit your collaborative answers.