Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Sunday, October 12, 2008 at 11:45 PM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Talent Assessments,
Executive Coaching
A big part of what we get to do as a company is to help our clients understand themselves a little better…sometimes a LOT better. This looks different in each situation, but a lot of times it involves administering talent assessments to their leadership team. It is always fun to watch the expressions on people’s faces as they read through their results and then begin to understand the results of their partners’ assessments as well. “Wow, that’s why I am having such a hard time getting along with so and so.” Or “No wonder when I am in such a rush to make a decision that person seems to always drag the process down.”
We have been in some situations where the survival of the company was at risk because of all the mistrust and infighting. I am happy to report that so far we haven’t lost a client because the company disbanded. That is not to say that there haven’t been times when the client discovered that it was probably better if ‘so and so’ moved on to a ‘better opportunity’. But we consistently see companies learn how to get along and work together better because of our efforts and the great assessment tools we have at our disposal.
Being a ‘people watcher’ at heart, this has been particularly rewarding to me as I have been used in situations to help one party gain a clearer perspective on their ‘adversary’ or help a group of people to see each other’s strengths and how they can better work together. And the time that I have spend coaching individuals, seeing them become much clearer about their life’s ‘calling’ has helped to validate my own calling. I have a great job!
Posted by
Lynn McConnell on Monday, July 21, 2008 at 3:21 PM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Job Benchmarking,
Performance
ALL PRESENT AND ACCOUNTED FOR? LOOK AGAIN……
Presenteeism is alive and well in the workplace. Generally, presenteeism is a term for those ‘walking dead’, the so-called loyal employees who drag themselves to work when they should be home in bed.
But I contend that Presenteeism goes beyond those ‘walking dead’. Any employee who is not fully engaged and working to their top capacity can be guilty of Presenteeism. What’s the harm in surfing the net occasionally, or Googling the latest Madonna videos, or taking an extended lunch, or making extended personal phone calls?
According to which report you read, statistics state that from 50% to 81% of all employees now in the workplace are disengaged, or not performing their jobs to their full capacity – they are practicing Presenteeism. Some may be actively looking for new jobs, others just wasting time chatting, gossiping, griping, or talking about the latest episode of “The Bachelorette”.
What’s an employer to do?
The first thing to do is make sure that you are hiring the right people into the right jobs. Technical expertise is not enough – the job must reward what motivates the employee the most. Even though an employee might have the skills to be a good researcher, if they are a person who loves being part of a team and gets their energy from interacting with others, they will soon wither and become disengaged by being stuck doing research by themselves. Or throwing someone into a sales job where they are forced to deal with people all day long might be stressful for someone who prefers to work alone.
Looking beyond the knowledge and technical experience a job calls for is imperative in this day of downturning economies. Businesses need to know that the people they are employing are engaged and productive. In order to keep employees engaged you have to provide them with work that is meaningful, challenging, and fun. They have to feel that what they are doing is making a difference, and that they are important to the success of the company they work for.
Learn more about the
job benchmarking process that will help ferret out these ‘soft skills’.
Posted by
Lynn McConnell on Friday, May 23, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Training & Team Building,
Leadership Development,
Performance
Emotional Intelligence, or EI, seems to be the topic de jour for organizational development these days. Broadly defined, EI can be defined as HOW people use the smarts they have. Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, professors from Yale University and the University of New Hampshire, defined emotional intelligence as “the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions.”
EI comprises four main areas:
- Self-awareness, or the ability to understand emotions and recognize how they affect oneself and other people.
- Self-management, or the ability to control one's emotions and impulses. Other attributes of self-management include trustworthiness, conscientiousness and adaptability.
- Social awareness, or the ability to be aware of others' feelings, needs and concerns. Key attributes of social awareness are empathy, service orientation and organizational awareness.
- Relationship management builds on the first three areas: communication, conflict management and the ability to influence others through inspirational leadership.
Why is this important?
Leaders set the emotional tone of an organization. Studies show that teams and individuals tend to be more creative problems solvers who adapt a win-win attitude toward conflict resolution.
We’ve all heard the phrase: “Employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers”.
In general, managers with a high emotional intelligence quotient tend to be empathetic, trustworthy, and have a knack for building relationships with others; while a manager with a low emotional intelligence quotient might be seen as critical and micro-managing.
Luckily, unlike intelligence quotients, emotional intelligence can be developed with training, feedback and coaching.
Does your organization measure and coach for emotional intelligence? If you don’t, you may be missing the boat when it comes to creating job satisfaction and developing those creative problem solvers who will become the leaders who will help your organization continue to thrive and grow!
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Leadership Development,
Executive Coaching
I love the sport of baseball and have spent hundreds of hours coaching the youth in our area over the past 10 years or so. A good friend of mine, who also loves and coaches the sport, and I have had an ongoing debate about what makes a team good...what gets them over the hump to be able to compete with the top teams in their city, state, etc.
Is it primarily about having good or great talent? Or is how they are coached and motivated more important?
I have been closely observing a local high school basketball team over the past several years. One year ago (according to my evaluation) they had very average talent as a team, and had a coach who had
no previous basketball coaching experience of any kind. He didn't know what he was doing and team morale plummeted early in the season. If I recall (and I have spent a long time trying not to) they won about 3 or 4 games all year.
Enter a new coach at the beginning of this year. He has plenty of experience and a HUGE passion for the game. After a rough start where the new coach had to 'unteach' all the bad habits and attitudes of past years (3 wins and 9 losses through 12 games) this team with basically the same players as last year wins 10 of their last 13 games and this week gets rewarded with a spot in the state tournament.
Talent? Or coaching? It is easy to see the importance of coaching in my example, but the truth is that it is some of both. In your business you may have some 'players' with a tremendous amount of talent. But unless they are coached, unless you learn who they really are and what motivates them, unless you help them to develop a team attitude, they are likely to produce very average results.
You may have some very average players on your team. Can you get them to perform at a superior level? Maybe even win the state title?
I know of about 15 kids who are fairly realistic about their natural abilities. They know that they are going to have to fight and scrap for every win they get. But they have decided to pay the price, to give everything they have, because of one coach who has learned how to motivate them and has helped them to believe. Stay tuned to see how the tournament turns out...
Posted by
Lynn McConnell on Monday, February 25, 2008 at 2:19 PM
Categories:
Talent Management
I was watching one of the morning ‘news’ shows that seems to be less focused on the news than on fluff – but that’s probably another topic for another day. The reporter was interviewing two women with differing points of view:
Should a woman hold out for “Mr. Right” and potentially risk ending up an old maid and alone; or should she re-think her definition of “Mr. Right” and settle for someone who isn’t quite so perfect? At least she wouldn’t be alone.
Well, the debate continues on that point, but it got me thinking about how some companies conduct their hiring process – some seem to think that a warm body is better than none at all. I’ve even heard these words come out of an interviewer’s mouth: “Let’s give him 6 months to prove that he can do the job and then if it doesn’t work out we can start looking again.” WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY??!!!
This is wrong on so many different levels. Number one, turn-over is expensive. Just in terms of hard costs you can anticipate it costing at least 25% of the first year’s gross salary to conduct the search, interview candidates, do the background checks, and then make the hiring decision. For a $50,000 a year job, that hard cost is $12,500. Then you start calculating in the soft costs of decreased productivity, training, and allowing the candidate to come up to speed on the job, your culture, and your procedures and you could easily be looking at a $15,000 - $20,000 impact on your company’s bottom line. And you think it’s OK to do that every 6 months? That’s just one position. Most companies replace more than one position during the year.
Then think of the effect on the morale of the other employees who are left trying to fill in for someone who isn’t carrying their weight in the department. They become frustrated and annoyed, their productivity begins to slip and you have a downward spiral that will impact your bottom-line.
So, what can you do to avoid settling for Mr. Right Now?
Make sure you have a clear picture of exactly what ‘Mr. or Ms. Right” looks like. What are the hard and soft skills that they would need to excel in the position? Develop that clear picture, communicate that to all your applicants, assess each applicant against those skills, and keep looking until you find that person.
It may take a bit longer, but it will be worth it to you, your staff, and your company!