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.