DanMcCarthy: blogshttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/Human Capital Leagueen-ushttp://humancapitalleague.com/logo/70.jpghttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/HomeWordFramemanaging_editorwebmasterTue, 21 May 2013 09:04:34 GMTTue, 21 May 2013 09:04:34 GMTWordFrame RSS Generator v.1.020How to Respond to an Employee's Mistakehttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/How-to-Respond-to-an-Employee-s-Mistake
Mistakes happens. I've made them, you've made them, we've all made them. As a manager, you're not only responsible for your own dumb mistakes, you're responsible for every one of the mistakes that each of your employee's make.

Given all of these mistakes, there's a lot of potential opportunities to practice how you respond.

You have two choices:

You can lose your temper, yell, scream, embarrass and punish the employee. While that approach may produce a temporary feeling of euphoria via an adrenaline rush for YOU, it'll only make sure your employee will do everything they can do to ensure you never find out about future mistakes they make. In other words, they'll get really good at covering up, and not so good at accountability.

The employee will most likely also think you're an $&*#-hole, and no one wants to work for an $&*#-hole. Oh, and the next time you make a mistake - that's the one the employee won't be so careful to cover up.

A better approach is to step back, take a deep breadth, and look at each time an employee makes a mistake as an opportunity to lead and develop the employee.

Here are tips for how to respond to an employee's mistake in a way that develops, vs. punishes, and provides you an opportunity to shine as a leader and earn your employee's respect and loyalty:

1. If the employee discovers their own mistake and comes to you, thank them for being accountable and bringing it to your attention. Let them know that mistakes happen, and it's important to you to acknowledge them and fix them as soon as possible.

2. Be a role model for the above behavior by publicly acknowledging your own mistakes.

3. Don't focus on placing blame - focus on solving the problem and making sure it doesn't happen again.

4. Ask questions and listen - without judgement - in order to gather all of the facts.

5. If appropriate, ask the employee what they think needs to be done to solve the problem and make sure it doesn't happen again. In most cases, people will know. If you rush in to solve the problem yourself (and sometimes you may have to), you miss the opportunity to coach and teach the employee to think for themselves.

There will be times when an employee just won't know what they did wrong and how to solve the problem. That's the time to practice situational leadership, and switch from coaching to teaching. You might have to spend time explaining to the employee WHY what they did was a mistake, i.e., it was a violation of a policy, the negative impact it has on the business or customer, etc...

Almost every mistake can be treated as a development opportunity. You may as well - it's a sunk cost, and not harvesting a return on the investment is bad management.

6. Separate the behavior from the end result. Sometimes, the employee practiced all the right behaviors, but didn't get the desired result. Other times, they'll get the desired result, but do it in a way that you'd never want them to repeat. By asking questions and listening (tip #4), you'll be able to learn what to reinforce and what to correct.

7. After the meeting, take some time to step back and examine the system, process, structure, etc... that may have contributed to the mistake. Maybe similar istakes can be prevented with better training, communication, and/or procedures. Mistakes rarely have just a single cause, and people are not always the problem.

A measure of a leader is the impact you have on every employee's energy level, or morale, after an interaction with you. Chances are, if they came to you with a mistake, they were dreading the meeting and already feeling pretty crummy about it.

This is often the time when an employee needs to know it's OK - that it's not the end of the world, and you're not going to hold it against them. I'm not saying the mistake should be minimized, especially if it's a doozy. However, once an action plan is agreed to and lessons were learned, make sure the employee leaves the discussion with their head held high and feeling confident in their abilities. They will always remember that moment - not just because they learned a valuable lesson, but they'll remember what you did for them as a leader.
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]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/How-to-Respond-to-an-Employee-s-Mistake#0Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:30:00 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/How-to-Respond-to-an-Employee-s-Mistake5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Hire the Wrong Personhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/5-Questions-to-Ask-Yourself--Before-You-Hire-the-Wrong-Person Guest post from DDI's Jazmine Boatman:


For some people, when perplexed about a frivolous decision (Chilis or Olive Garden? Blue tie or green? Red shoes or black?), tossing a coin and leaving the decision to chance can offer a lot of relief. What is the real risk of having a sandwich instead of pasta for dinner, really? But when it comes to bigger decisions, coins tend to not be the method of choice for savvy decision makers. Or are they?

DDI’s most recent trend research, Global Selection Forecast 2012, tells us that only 51% of newly hired employees are confident that they’ve made the right decision to come work for you. That means their productivity is suffering, and so is yours. It also means they’re probably looking for another job right about now and are in the process of forcing you to go through the entire painstaking hiring process once again. And it’s not just the new hires that think so, HR agrees. We found that less than half of those in charge of their organization’s staffing rate their hiring processes as effective. This means that with the current processes, the odds for making good hiring decisions are worse than they would have been simply tossing a coin.  

While the consequences of more low-risk decisions like a meal can last a few hours, the people you hire can affect you and your organization for years to come. For these decisions with colossal impact, how can you increase your odds for success?

The following are 5 questions you can ask yourself to KNOW MORE and GUESS LESS about who you hire:

1) Do you know what you’re looking for? Before you go to the store, you typically create a shopping list. Otherwise, you’ll end up roaming the aisles and coming home with less money in your pocket but still nothing to eat. Do you have a shopping list for what your new hire has to be able and willing to do? Have you outlined exactly what they need to know and have experienced?

2)  Do you have an inside (wo)man for the job? Before you open the doors to the hordes of people out there looking for work, is there someone already in the organization that you should be considering?  Particularly for leadership positions, internal candidates have a leg up on the inner workings of your organization. A recent study (Bidwell, 2011) found that external hires cost 20% more and performed worse on the job.


3)  Do you know enough about your external candidates? Gathering data about people is complicated. Because people are complicated. You’re going to need a variety of methods (e.g., interviews, tests, simulations) for gathering the critical information you need to know about how candidates will perform on the job. In fact, the organizations most effective at hiring use at least 3 different tools. Find out more about these tools and how to conduct more effective interviews in the Global Selection Forecast 2012.

4)   Do your candidates know enough about you and what they’re signing up for? The more you can share about the day-to-day job (e.g., projects they will work on, people they will need to influence, time spent in meetings), the more informed candidates can be in whether this is a job that (a) they will be good at, (b) they will enjoy, and, (c) they will stay in for a long time to come.  


5)  Do they know how to make the impact you’re expecting? They’re not mind-readers. Newly hired employees need specifics about how to be successful once they’re on the job. Who better to tell them than you? You have the information they need to thrive. If you’ve gathered the right data during step 3, you have critical information about what they need to leverage on Day 1 and what could prove to be a barrier to their success. This information doesn’t belong in a file folder down in HR, it is best used in the hands of hiring managers and their new hires.

When it comes to increasing the odds of making a critical hiring decision that will make your life easier and benefit your company for years to come, the message is simple and clear: KNOW MORE and GUESS LESS.

About the author:
Jazmine Boatman manages DDI’s Center for Applied Behavioral Research (CABER), which conducts and champions research on leadership and talent in the workplace. She and her group work to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of DDI solutions worldwide and fulfill the philosophy that talent management practices should be evidence-based.
An industrial-organizational psychologist with special expertise in leadership and measurement, Jazmine consults with clients and leads evaluation studies that measure the results of DDI interventions. Jazmine has provided thought leadership to DDI clients and associates and helped them design measurement strategies to assess the implementation of their programs and the execution of their objectives. Jazmine has consulted with numerous Fortune 100 and 500 organizations such as Citigroup, The Hartford, Con-way Inc., P&H Mining, YUM! Brands, Sara Lee, Schwan’s, T-Mobile, Goodyear, and Texas Children’s Hospital.  




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]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/5-Questions-to-Ask-Yourself--Before-You-Hire-the-Wrong-Person#0Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:22:09 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/5-Questions-to-Ask-Yourself--Before-You-Hire-the-Wrong-PersonTargets of Bully Bosses Aren't the Only Victimshttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Targets-of-Bully-Bosses-Aren-t-the-Only-VictimsDURHAM, N.H. – Abusive bosses who target employees with ridicule, public criticism, and the silent treatment not only have a detrimental effect on the employees they bully, but they negatively impact the work environment for the co-workers of those employees who suffer from “second-hand” or vicarious abusive supervision, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire.

In the first ever study to investigate vicarious supervisory abuse, Paul Harvey, associate professor of organizational behavior at UNH, and his research colleagues Kenneth Harris and Raina Harris from Indiana University Southeast and Melissa Cast from New Mexico State University find that vicarious supervisory abuse is associated with job frustration, abuse of other coworkers, and a lack of perceived organizational support beyond the effects of the abusive supervisor.

The research is presented in the Journal of Social Psychology in the article “An Investigation of Abusive Supervision, Vicarious AbuseSupervision, and Their Joint Impacts.”

Abusive supervision is considered a dysfunctional type of leadership and includes a sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors toward subordinates.

“Although the effects of abusive supervision may not be as physically harmful as other types of dysfunctional behavior, such as workplace violence or aggression, the actions are likely to leave longer-lasting wounds, in part, because abusive supervision can continue for a long time,” Harvey said.

Those long-lasting wounds also are felt by the co-workers of the victims of bulling bosses.

Vicarious supervisory abuse is defined as the observation or awareness of a supervisor abusing a co-worker. Examples of vicarious supervisory abuse in a workplace include an employee hearing rumors of abusive behavior from coworkers, reading about such behaviors in an email, or actually witnessing the abuse of a coworker. 

“When vicarious abusive supervision is present, employees realize that the organization is allowing this negative treatment to exist, even if they are not experiencing it directly,” the researchers said.

The researchers queried a sample of 233 people who work in a wide range of occupations in the Southeast United States. Demographically, the sample was 46 percent men, 86 percent white, had an average age of 42.6 years, had worked in their job for seven years, had worked at their company for 10 years, and worked an average of 46 hours a week. Survey respondents were asked about supervisory abuse, vicarious supervisory abuse, job frustration, perceived organizational support, and coworker abuse. 

The researchers found similar negative impacts of first-hand supervisory abuse and second-hand vicarious supervisory abuse: greater job frustration, tendency to abuse other coworkers, and a lack of perceived organizational support. In addition, the negative effects from either type of abuse were intensified if the coworker was a victim of both kinds of supervisory abuse.

“Our research suggests that vicarious abusive supervision is as likely as abusive supervision to negatively affect desired outcomes, with the worst outcomes resulting when both vicarious abusive supervision and abusive supervision are present,” the researchers said. “Top management needs further education regarding the potential impacts of vicarious abuse supervision on employees to prevent and/or mitigate the effects of such abuse.”

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.

UNH is offering two extraordinary leadership development programs in April and the Fall of 2013:The UNH Next Level Executive Development Program and The UNH Woman's Leadership Development Program

Link to original post]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Targets-of-Bully-Bosses-Aren-t-the-Only-Victims#0Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:00:00 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Targets-of-Bully-Bosses-Aren-t-the-Only-VictimsWhy You Should Conduct Talent Review Meetings and 10 Best Practices for Doing Themhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Why-You-Should-Conduct-Talent-Review-Meetings-and-10-Best-Practices-for-Doing-Them
I’ll bet a lot of executives and managers reading this post would enthusiastically agree with the declaration “Employees are our greatest asset”.

How about you? How successful would your team or organization be without talented, high performing people?  At the end of the day, in today’s hyper-competitive global economy, talent just might be the only remaining sustainable competitive advantage.

However, if you want to find out what’s really valued by an organization’s leadership, just take a peek at the agendas for their business review meetings, board meetings, operations reviews, quarterly shareholder meetings, sales meetings, or any other kind of management meeting that permeates a busy executives’ calendar. Count up how much time is spent reviewing the earning per share, revenue, profit, sales quotas, manufacturing capacity, inventory, marketing strategy, and other topics. Any mention of a review of talent? 
Probably not, and if there is, it’s only there because it’s a once-a-year HR mandated review.

Actions speak louder than words. If you’re serious about leveraging that all-important asset (your talent), then it’s time to get into a regular rhythm of talent reviews.

A talent review is simply a discussion of your team or organizations people. It answers the questions:
·       - Who are our highest and lowest performers?
·       - Who has potential to move into a larger role?
·       - Who are our potential successors for key leadership positions?
·       - What should we be doing to improve our talent?
·      -  Where are we vulnerable, and what should we do to minimize our risk?

Even if you’re already conducting talent review meetings, there may be some ways to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. Here are 10 best practices, gleamed from my own experience as well as tips from other talent management experts and successful leaders:

1. Enlist the assistance of an experienced, unbiased facilitator. If you've never ran your own talent review meeting, get some help from a trusted expert. It could be someone from HR, a consultant, or even a trusted experienced peer. After a few meetings, you and your team will get the hang of it and can fly solo. However, there still may be times when you’d want someone to run the meeting so you can sit back and be a full participant without getting bogged down by running the process.

2. It’s YOUR meeting – show up! Getting assistance is fine, but just remember, you and your team are responsible for managing your team’s talent, not HR or anyone else. I've heard of managers that insist they shouldn't participate in their own talent review meetings, because  they don’t want to bias the results and don’t think their team will be completely candid if they are present. Nonsense! The team needs to hear your opinions and your expectations, and if your team is afraid to speak up in your presence, then you've got a bigger problem that needs to be addressed.
I've seen other executives use the time to check emails and get caught up on their reading. Again, actions speak louder than words. Don’t just show up – be 100% present.

3. Don’t over-complicate it. Use a performance and potential matrix (9-box) – a simple, yet effective way to have a discussion about your people. This one sheet of paper is all any manager should have in front of them – not a stack of employee profiles, organizations charts, development plans, and other forms. That stuff should all be available electronically if needed, but it rarely is.
Also, don’t try to over-complicate the 9-box tool. Coming up with labels for each quadrant or numbering systems rarely adds value to the discussion and more often derails it.

4. Make sure you and your team are prepared. Review the purpose and process, as well as ground rules for the talent review prior to the meeting, and give your team at least a week to prepare.

5. Allow plenty of time. A typical in-depth talent review can take about 4 hours. If you try to do it in multiple meetings, you’ll waste too much time in the transitions from one meeting to the next. Then, after a once-per-year (minimal) in-depth review, progress and updates can be handled as a part of your regular meetings.

6. Hold your leadership team accountable. I once supported a business unit President that took his talent management very seriously. When some poor manager showed up unprepared, didn't follow instructions, or didn't follow through on action items, it was NOT a pretty sight. However, they caught on quickly to the importance of managing talent and most learned to be world-class talent managers themselves (or they didn't last long).

7. Don’t just assess your talent. I've seen and heard of a lot of organizations that just assess their talent, but never get around to discussing how to develop their talent. It doesn't have to take long. As a team, just decide on the one thing that would help the employee grow stronger. If you don’t have time to discuss development for every employee, then prioritize, i.e., just do your high potentials. Also, if someone is seen as having senior leadership potential, check to see if they are on anyone’s succession plan – or if they should be.

8. Take notes. This is another reason to have a facilitator assist you – someone to keep track of changes to the 9-box and agreed upon development actions. Each manager should also be taking notes on their own employees. These notes are then used to help hold the team accountable for implementation, which is where talent management usually comes up short.

9. Transparency. While a good ground rule to follow is “what’s said in Vegas stays in Vegas”, that doesn't mean that nothing should be shared with employees. Managers should be having follow-up career and development discussions with their employees to provide feedback and create robust development plans.

10. Be a role model. Sure, holding others accountable is important. However, when a manager treats development as something that’s good for everyone else but doesn't model development and coaching themselves, they lose credibility. They miss the opportunity to improve themselves, their leadership team, and teach valuable skills that will cascade down through the organization.

Follow these 10 tips to get the maximum ROI from your talent review meetings. And if your HR partner isn't supporting you in this process, ask why not? Remember, you’re accountable for your organization’s bottom line and you’ll need nothing from the best talent to get those results.

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]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Why-You-Should-Conduct-Talent-Review-Meetings-and-10-Best-Practices-for-Doing-Them#0Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:00:41 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Why-You-Should-Conduct-Talent-Review-Meetings-and-10-Best-Practices-for-Doing-ThemListen for the Sound of Your Own Successhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Listen-for-the-Sound-of-Your-Own-Success Guest post from Scott Weiss:

Leading an open and collaborative corporate culture can be a tough job. Essentially, you must learn to be a “safety engineer.” Safety engineering simply assures that a critical system behaves as needed, even when components fail. Think of that “critical system” as your company, and those “components” as your employees. If one employee fails, the entire company should not crumble, especially if you have incorporated core values in the system.

Trust seems to be the common denominator in open-culture organizations. In order for trust to be ingrained as a core dynamic, leaders must also learn how to extend it. Because trust is a two-way street, you must first prove that you are worthy of trust. In order to truly empower our teams to release their creative potential or find true enthusiasm for their work, we must learn to trust them and create a genuine partnership. After all, that’s why we hired them in the first place.

After ingraining trust in your employees, there are three key practices leaders must follow in order to create the open and collaborative culture for which they are striving.

Expect the best
Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

Eisenhower hit the nail on the head. The key to getting things done starts with trusting your employees by setting high expectations. Each person will either rise to the occasion or fail to meet our expectations, but when we expect the best we are more likely to get positive results. I’ve heard this presumptive attitude called “positive intent,” which I believe is invaluable, especially when working with a cross-generational and multi-cultural workforce. Trust should always be an extension of everything we do. I believe as leaders we must reserve judgment on generational or cultural differences in language, customs or communication and work styles, in order to keep employees open to learning.

Model Authentic Conversations
In this day and age, it is overwhelmingly difficult to carry on a conversation with people, especially millennials. With social media at its peak (including texting, instant messaging, posting on Facebook and emailing) conversations have turned into fragments, are no longer grammatically correct, and come with plenty of syntax errors. As face-to-face conversations are becoming less and less common in the workplace, I believe conversation is becoming a dying art. Just like any other art, it is worth practicing and preserving.

Of course, in our personal relationships we know how to communicate, and we want to know the other person deeply. But when it comes to corporate America, people face time constraints, agendas and goals. In many leaders’ eyes, in order to get something we want, we must control the situation.

Audiences can sense when leaders are trying to control the situation and warrant a specific, robotic response. When listeners feel like objects of a conversation rather than participants, they become defensive, put up barriers, and sometimes even ignore what we say, for good reason.

Since conversation is an art, there is always room for improvement. Due to the high demands of our daily workload, it is impossible to have face-to-face conversations with everyone. There will always be large presentations, company-wide memos and conference calls, but creating more authentic, genuine conversations along the way will show through to your audiences, ultimately building trust within the communications for which you are responsible.

Learn to Listen
The average person really only listens about 25 percent of the time. Active listening requires our FULL attention - our eyes, ears and hearts must be invested in order to participate in a true conversation. Although we all believe we are excellent listeners, many people start formulating a response after just the first half of a sentence, likely listening for the next short lull in the conversation to speak again. Improving our listening skills is a self-development process that can have a tremendous effect on our day-to-day conversations. Listed below are key skills for becoming an active listener.

1. Attend fully: Maintain eye contact. Don’t fail to listen because you’re thinking about what you’re going to say next. Assume positive intent. Avoid prejudging. Keep an open mind.

2. Restate and paraphrase: Ask questions for clarification; restate or paraphrase the speaker’s point to make sure that you didn’t misunderstand.

3. Interpret and confirm: Respond to the message by offering a tentative interpretation of the speaker’s feelings, desires, or meanings.

4. Allow for space and silence: Don’t panic in the pauses or be tempted to fill them with glib, easy sound bites. Listening demands space in a communication exchange. It requires giving each of you time to think as well as to talk. Confident, self-reflective leaders aren’t afraid to say, "You know, I'm not sure about what you are suggesting. Let me process this for a day or two and get back to you."

Use these active listening skills not only in one-on-one conversations, but in all types of communication, including large presentations, conference calls and group or team meetings. This will create more effective, more meaningful, more collaborative and less contentious exchanges, ultimately producing authentic conversation.  

Safety Engineering
Those who want to lead an open and collaborative corporate culture are obligated to become their organization’s safety engineers. I dare you to establish organization priorities of extending trust to each individual and establishing safety throughout. Try this: value the art of conversation. Make it a point to actively listen in every environment and develop a skill you want to model for those around you.  I dare you to risk your unmasked self in corporate conversations and model simplicity and sincerity for others.

About Scott
Scott Weiss, author of, “DARE”, and CEO of Speakeasy, Inc., has one wish: for you to be the most authentic leader you can be. Through his work at Speakeasy, Scott has helped the leaders of some of the world’s most recognizable brands, including Coca-Cola, Accenture and Wells Fargo, become more authentic communicators. Scott is also a professional speaker and blogger. Find out more by visiting  www.darethebook.com, and follow Scott’s DARE updates on Twitter @DAREthebook.
Link to original post]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Listen-for-the-Sound-of-Your-Own-Success#0Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:39:44 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Listen-for-the-Sound-of-Your-Own-Success10 New Year’s Resolutions for Leadershttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/10-New-Year-s-Resolutions-for-LeadersHaving trouble coming up with a good leadership New Year’s resolution? Here’s a list of 10 to pick from. These are things that leaders know they “should” do but often don’t. Don’t overdo it – just pick one and commit to it!

Feel free to submit your own in the comments section – there’s nothing like a public declaration to help hold yourself accountable.

For 2013, I’m going to:

1. Develop a charter

for my team or organization. The charter will include our purpose (or mission), our vision, our values, long term (2-3 years) goals, objectives, and action plans. I’ll involve my team and other stakeholders in the development of the charter, make sure it’s communicated clearly and consistently, and follow-up on a regular basis to track progress, revise, and celebrate achievements.

2. Reach out to someone who helped me

become the leader I am today. I’ll write a letter, or maybe even pay a visit, and let them know specifically what they did and why it was so important for me.

3. Schedule and hold regular one-on-ones

with each of my team members. We’ll use that time to discuss concerns, opportunities, progress on goals, development, celebrate achievements, or just touch base of what’s going on in our busy lives. If I have a conflict, I won’t cancel the meeting – instead, I’ll reschedule it.

4. Decide what’s important to me as a leader

– what I stand for and why. I’ll share this with others, and consistently act in a way that demonstrates these values and beliefs.

5. Be more accountable

 I’ll admit my mistakes, fix them, learn from them, and stop pointing fingers or placing blame.

6. Improve my presentation skills

and the way I communicate. I’ll take a course, join toastmasters, hire a coach, practice, and get feedback from others.

7. Listen more and better.

I’m going to seek to understand the other person’s point of view and emotions, and force myself not to evaluate, judge, or offer my own point of view until I am sure I have understood theirs.

8. Get feedback

on my leadership skills. I’ll take a multi-rater assessment or figure out some other ways to get an accurate assessment as to how I am perceived by others.

9. Mentor someone.

I’ll make myself available to help someone else become even better than me. If not someone at work, I’ll volunteer my time to an organization like Big Brothers Big Sisters.

10. Be more innovative.

I’m going to look for possibilities, and ask “why not”, and “what if”. I’ll take a course and/or read a bookon what it takes to be an innovative leader, and pick 2-3 things to implement and practice.


Link to original post]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/10-New-Year-s-Resolutions-for-Leaders#0Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:09:39 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/10-New-Year-s-Resolutions-for-LeadersThe 10 Elements of Positive Performance Managementhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/The-10-Elements-of-Positive-Performance-Management Guest post from John Mattone:

The fundamental belief underlying Positive Performance Management (PPM) is this: Leaders and their employees must strive to make performance reviews complete, honest, and timely.

 As a leader, it is critical that you engage in crucial conversations to let employees know where they stand at all times. In the course of executing PPM, you should hold yourself to the highest standards of character, always being fair and honest and never injuring a person’s sense of dignity and self-worth. Ultimately, by holding yourself to the highest standards of character, you enable your employees the free will to make whatever decision that’s in their best interest, whether such a decision involves recommitting to you and the organization or even deciding to move on in their careers. 

 Clearly, by executing PPM with character, you also enable your organization to exercise its free will to make the best human resource decisions possible, whether they are decisions involving promotion, transfer, discipline, and even termination. It is only as a result of leaders’ executing PPM with unwavering character and purpose that an organization—your organization—can lay the groundwork for achieving breakthrough-operating performance.

What If the Truth Is Not Told?
I have coached countless leaders who, unfortunately and unknowingly—even knowingly—fall into a very dangerous trap of underrepresenting their employees’ performance (i.e., they tell them that they are performing worse than they are in reality).  This tendency creates:

- Dissatisfaction: “They don’t understand me no matter what I say or do.” 

- Reduced Motivation: “Why try? My boss doesn’t appreciate what I do.” 

- Reduced Commitment and Alignment: “Neither my boss nor anyone in this company cares about me or the talents I bring. Why should I care about my boss or this company?” 

- Voluntary or Involuntary Termination: “Enough is enough. I am going to bring my talent elsewhere.”

Of course, I have also worked with many leaders who make the opposite mistake of over-representing their employees’ performance (i.e., they tell them they are performing better than they are in reality). This creates:

- Coasting: “My boss told me I am doing great, so I’ll just cruise along with my usual half-effort.”

- Perceived Unfairness: My boss is playing favorites, so why should I commit?”

- Problems Disciplining/Terminating the Employee Later: “What? Poor work? You told me last year right in this office that I was doing great work.”

Clearly, beyond the need to hold yourself to a higher character standard as a leader, there are significant ethical and legal reasons for ensuring that you are executing PPM in a fair, honest, and objective fashion.

The Ten Elements of Positive Performance Management
There are ten key elements of Positive Performance Management. The greater the degree to which you incorporate these principles, the greater the probability will be of having complete, honest, and timely performance reviews.  

1. Employee involvement: Objectives should be set with employee in put. 

2. Valid performance criteria: Employees should only be rated on the criteria/factors that determine success in their job. 

3. Year-Round Process: Employees need feedback on a regular basis to optimize their performance. 

4. Proper Preparation: Both you and your employees need to dedicate time preparing for appraisals. 

5. Avoid Stereotypical Thinking: You must ensure that your ratings are free of biases. 

6. Input from Others: Obtaining input from others (i.e., teammates, coworkers,
subordinates, etc.) can result in more accurate and complete performance
reviews. 

7. Consistency: You must send a clear and consistent message. Your words
should not conflict with your body language.  

8. Rating Integrity: The final rating should be based on what was accomplished
and how it was accomplished. 

9. Dialogue: Regular communication between you and your employees is critical throughout the year. 

10. Employee Ownership: Because your employee’s name is on the review and
his or her compensation and promotional opportunities are determined by
the review ratings, employees should be entitled to a much larger role in shaping their own review.

Emphasis should be placed on employees reporting their progress to date. You and your employees need to focus on indicators of whether goals will be exceeded or not met. If employees are on pace to exceed their goals, discuss with them how to maintain their current performance level. It is important for you to spend time on performance exceeding specified goal standards. Many times, leaders spend too much time on performance that is below a goal. If an employee is on pace to perform below a goal standard, work with your employees to determine the causes of poor performance, examine solutions, and agree on appropriate actions.  

John Mattone is widely regarded as the world's leading authority on the Future Trends of Leadership Development & Talent Management. In 2011, he was named by the prestigious Thinkers50 as one of the fastest rising stars in the field of leadership development.  http://www.johnmattonepartners.com/

Link to original post]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/The-10-Elements-of-Positive-Performance-Management#0Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:48:02 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/The-10-Elements-of-Positive-Performance-ManagementA Manager’s Guide to Crying at Workhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/A-Manager-s-Guide-to-Crying-at-Work
Back in 1968, Ed Muskie, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, may have lost the election when he allegedly broke down in tears in front of reporters while defending attacks made on his wife.
Fast forward to 2012: President Obama cried at a meeting with his campaign staff the day after he won the election. Speaker of the house John Boehner cried on 60 minutes, and is a notorious crier.
Reactions to our political leaders, sports heroes, and other role models crying are mixed. Some say it’s embarrassing and a sign of emotional instability or weakness. Others say it’s a good thing, as it shows passion, sensitivity, and authenticity, all important characteristics for today’s leader. And still others accuse some criers of using “crocodile tears” as a way to manipulate or as a form of emotional blackmail.
No matter where you stand on the issue of crying, as a manager, if you have not already, you’ll be faced with a crying employee. The old rule of thumb was “there’s no place for emotions in the workplace (or baseball), it’s all about the facts, just the facts”. Managers, when faced with a crying employee, would either run away in fear or do something stupid or insensitive, or both.

So what’s a manager to do when faced with a crying employee? While there are no clear, consensus management rules to fall back to, there are a few things that may be helpful to know:

1. It’s not about character, it’s about science.
According to Dr. William Frey, the director of the Alzheimer’s Research Center at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., and author of the 1985 book Crying: The Mystery of Tears, adult women cry four times as often as men. But it has less to do with weakness or sensitivity, and more to do with biology.
Men’s and women’s tear ducts are anatomically different. Women also have higher levels of the hormone prolactin, which promotes lactation and has been associated with an increased tendency to cry. Prolactin levels also rise when a woman is menstruating, pregnant, or has recently given birth. Similarly, testosterone—of which men have more—has been associated with a decreased tendency to tear up. Different people have different prolactin and testosterone levels, so some people are more apt to cry than others.
So, as managers, we need to let go of stereotypes and perceptions about crying and recognize it for what it is – a chemical reaction. 

2. Keep a box of tissue on your desk at all times.
While this may seem obvious to some, I’ve sometimes walked around offices and noticed that more than half of the manager’s desks lack this management essential. Who knows, maybe they’re hiding them in a desk drawer, only to be pulled out when needed?

In either case, when faced with tears, gently pushing a tissue box is a way to break the tension, show some sensitivity, and provide a practical solution to running noses and mascara.
3. Offer a brief “time out” to allow the employee to regain their composure.
Although crying at work may be more common, acceptable, and biological, it’s still often embarrassing and uncomfortable for the employee. Asking “are you OK?”, or pointing it out, may just make it worse. The employee will most likely appreciate the opportunity to regroup and resume the discussion in an hour or so. I even read about a manager that took a break from her own office to use the restroom, giving the employee a chance to compose herself. When she returned, they were able to continue the discussion without a word said about the crying.

4. Avoid the "fish bowl.
If you know the discussion will be sensitive and the employee is prone to crying, have the discussion in a private place. If you don’t have an office or if your office has glass windows, then book a conference room. It’s embarrassing enough having to cry in front of your manager, and even more so having all of your co-workers watching it.
5. Don’t let crying be an excuse for avoiding the issue or lowering your standard.

Yes, a “time-out” is a good idea, but it should not be a permanent time-out. Set a follow-up time and get pick up right where you left off.

6. Be aware that sudden and frequent crying may be a symptom of bigger problems, either at work or home.
I’d certainly be concerned if lots of my employees were crying at work – that just might be a sign that there’s a problem with the work environment, don’t you think? Also, stuff happens in our lives, and it’s impossible to separate our personal lives from our work lives. While it’s not part of your job description to solve your employee’s personal problems, being understanding and supportive is the right thing to do as a leader.
7. Provide coaching if the crying is “inappropriate”. 

Workplace experts will disagree on this, but as normal and acceptable as crying may be in today’s workplace, there are STILL situations where it could have an impact on your performance or be career limiting. Crying as a reaction to feedback, losing your composure in a boardroom, or an inability to deal with conflict are all situations that can’t be overlooked. Your employee may need your help in pointing this out, as well coming up with more acceptable ways to cope with their emotions.

How about you? Where do you stand on the issue of crying at work? What advice would you offer managers?



Link to original post]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/A-Manager-s-Guide-to-Crying-at-Work#0Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:48:33 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/A-Manager-s-Guide-to-Crying-at-WorkThe 5 Perils of Leadershiphttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/The-5-Perils-of-Leadership
Guest post from Miles Anthony Smith:

If we go into management to earn more, have more power/prestige, and work less, we are either naïve or ignorant. (And let’s admit right now that those are precisely the reasons most of us go into management.)

1. Prepare to be Hated
Wise leaders accept that some decisions will be unpopular. If you can’t handle others’ disapproval, then leadership probably isn’t for you. Trying to be everyone’s friend is a futile and selfish effort. Most of us want to be liked; as we progress through school, we do things to get others to accept us (with varying levels of success). We try to wear the cool clothes, have a cool car, or take the cool classes. We then carry those bad habits into the workplace; we do things to attain the approval of others, allowing true accountability to wither. Some of us want so desperately to be accepted that we will sacrifice the good of the rest of the organization for our own selfish emotional gain. While it might help in the short-term, the pursuit of approval is a guarantee of long-term failure. Those who don’t throw their leadership opportunities away in pursuit of approval will be teased at best; at worst, they will be ridiculed, mocked, and defamed. So prepare to be hated, but remember that the haters are the ones who don’t matter. The ones who do matter will sincerely appreciate your leadership and implicitly trust your guidance, since you have proven your constancy and trustworthiness.

2. Conquer Your Fears
In life, but especially in leadership positions, we all face fears. We fear not being accepted, feelings of inadequacy, shame, rejection, discomfort, and the list goes on. My response (and I am speaking to myself more loudly than others) is, “We’re all afraid . . . so what!” We must choose to get over our fears and not allow them to hinder our growth and development as leaders. So what if we don’t have it all together. So what if we didn’t go to the right school; so what if we didn’t have a good mentor. We all have something to offer, and we must choose to focus on what we do have to offer, not what we don’t. And remember the dirty little secret is that those who are acting like they have it all together really don’t.

3. Betrayals are Par for the Course
One thing that fuels fears about the future is past betrayals, and betrayal is one of the ultimate tests of leadership. Are we willing to walk in forgiveness with those who betray or seem to have betrayed us? Are we going to wall ourselves off from future close relationships with others, or are we going to allow intimate relationships with others that ultimately might mean another betrayal? I do recommend that we are wise in this, not allowing obviously dysfunctional people close to us, but we can’t use that as an excuse to not be vulnerable. I admit that forgiving betrayal is difficult for me, but I must choose to let those circumstances go, since unforgiveness only hurts me, not the other person. I would rather choose to remain vulnerable and be taken advantage of than be so skeptical of others that I have no intimate friendships.

4&5: Get Comfortable with Discomfort & Vulnerability
Leaders also get to be uncomfortable; it’s part of the job description. At one point, I resigned from a position with a company and had the choice to leave without talking to anyone or come back the next day and give my leaders some closure. As painful and emotional as I knew it would be, I chose the latter and am glad I did. As leaders, we don’t have the luxury of shirking painful responsibilities even though we would like to. Leadership is not necessarily safe but can be perilous to our career; it involves much more risk than just being a team member. Our actions as leaders are held to a much higher standard, and criticism of our leadership decisions is much more out in the open for everyone to see. Simply being a team member allows more anonymity for the quality of work and decisions made. If things don’t work out in leadership, that person usually doesn’t have the opportunity to move to another position within the company like a non-manager does.

The Bottom Line
So if the perils of leadership are hatred, discomfort, vulnerability, fear, and betrayal, why should anyone lead? This world desperately needs leaders who aren't afraid of the discomfort that is required of leadership and will do the gnarly job of putting the needs of others first, not their own selfish interests. Without true selfless leadership, pride, ego, and self-interest will destroy organizational, political, and societal culture. So I challenge us to look for ways to coach and teach others that even though being "others focused" is often painful in the short term, it is valuable and worthwhile in the long run. I invite you to join me on this challenging, yet satisfying leadership journey together.

About Miles Anthony Smith:
Born a Hoosier, raised an Okie, and currently residing in the Frozen Tundra of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Miles Anthony Smith, a Gen X'er leader, cares enough about organizational health to make the tough decisions, hire and coach the right people, set clear expectations, develop a strong team culture, and strengthen organizational cash flow, exhibiting both humility and fierce resolve. His mission in life is “To Chart the Course, Pave the Pathway, and Light the Lane for Others to Eclipse My Own Success in Leadership.”
He’s the author of the new book Why Leadership Sucks: Fundamentals of Level 5 Leadership and Servant Leadership.



Link to original post]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/The-5-Perils-of-Leadership#0Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:32:49 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/The-5-Perils-of-LeadershipDisconnection at the Heart of Corporate Failurehttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Disconnection-at-the-Heart-of-Corporate-Failure Guest post by Debbie Nicol:

Have you ever watched TV with the volume down and the radio on in the background? Some may describe that as crazy, some call it multi-tasking whilst others may sadly say ‘oh we have that all the time at work, everyone talking at once, no one listening, saying one thing and doing another’, creating confusion, misalignment and disconnection, and even at times manifesting as corruption and unethical practice.

Disconnection is at the heart of many corporate failures and can happen on several levels. It may be:

 • the leaders themselves disconnected from their own truth and reality, unable to recognize and ‘be’ who they are in the corporate environment and hence living in a world of reaction, external validation and insecurity affecting both the leader whilst also cascading unbridled throughout the layers of the organization.

 • the leader disconnected from the people, when the mindset and intention of ‘service before self’ simply doesn’t exist, or if it does it is often manifested as unequal and at times self-serving.

• the people disconnected from the organization’s values and aspirations. If there is no reason for a change to occur, and no consequences if the change doesn’t occur, why embrace the change at all?

Effective leadership dispels confusion, corruption and disconnection by demonstrating authenticity and building a foundation of trust. It’s about achieving results naturally with processes that serve all equally, with increasing support from those who buy into the dream and taking shared responsibility for outcomes, good and bad. This simply cannot happen without authenticity, trust, internal validation, intuition and even some vulnerability through reflecting honestly on past projects and identifying where any disconnection occurred. It requires a new way of thinking and being. It is a leadership model that rewards new outcomes that serve all, rather than an entitlement mindset.

 ‘embers of the world’, a new process and leadership model, places reflection and connection at the heart of all that we do. It brings executive leaders to a quiet place where they can see the value of stopping, looking, listening and feeling, allowing intuition to enter decisions, using connection to drive operations, welcoming the change that becomes or evolves, in line with a whole new menu of rewards that corporations of the future will embrace.

In the book, Corporate Embers, one of the reflections following a particular scenario asks: When we say no to something, what are we saying yes to?

Just as our backbone holds us ‘in alignment’, how can leadership of today be the conduit of new outcomes, whilst in alignment with today’s changing business landscape requirements?

My leadership philosophy has developed over the past 20-plus years as an HR professional, entrepreneur and business owner. I started my business after years of frustration watching disconnected organizational leadership attempting to effect change without reflecting on lessons from the past or even a vision for how the change should be implemented and how it would serve the greater good. My book came about after I watched the floodwaters of the 2004 tsunami wash away the entire resort I was staying in, all except for my own bungalow. It was a wake-up call, similar to the one corporations around the world are hearing... but will they heed it? Through my professional, educational and volunteer work, it is my mission to reach as many evolved leaders as I can to spread the message that corporations of the future can serve all equally and still prosper both financially and ethically.

Here's how to continue the evolution of your leadership style to become more connected:

1. Reflect - Stop, look, listen and feel what's around you. Take time in your busy day to just breath in your surroundings, gaze out the window and let your subconscious mind enter the foreground. Once you're comfortable doing this, invite your executive team to join you (keep a particular challenge in mind that you wish to resolve).

2. Connect - Recognize what scenarios and solutions naturally present themselves. Welcome them without judgment and without discarding ideas before you vet them with the team, or invite others to share the connections they have made when contemplating on a particular situation.

3. Collaborate - Share openly and honestly any situation that has presented a challenge or needs to change. Tell it as a story with as much detail as possible. Invite discussion, suspend judgment, build trust, and listen to intuition.

4. Innovate - Open dialogue and trust will unblock the flow of new ideas, which leads to freer thinking and alternative, untried solutions.

 5. Become - Watch your team become that which the organization needs to be successful, feeling ownership of the outcomes and making decisions that serve all equally while prospering both financially and ethically.

Debbie Nicol - Biography
Debbie Nicol, author of the 'embers of the world' series, and the new book, Corporate Embers – business promoting insights for the soul of the corporation, is passionate about change and 'becoming'. Australian by birth, Debbie has been a 'global citizen' for over two decades, drawing much inspiration from the world around.
Debbie is the founder and managing director of business en motion, which is based in Dubai, UAE and provides consulting and training services for strategic direction, change management and organizational culture. ‘embers of the world’ is a leadership change model and process created by Debbie and is a product of business en motion.



Link to original post]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Disconnection-at-the-Heart-of-Corporate-Failure#0Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:32:59 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Disconnection-at-the-Heart-of-Corporate-Failure5 Ways to Make Sure You Don’t Fall off the Fast-trackhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/5-Ways-to-Make-Sure-You-Don-t-Fall-off-the-Fast-track Most organizations have some kind of formal or informal succession planning process to identify their high potential (HIPO), or “fast track” talent. Some will come right out and tell you you’re part of a high potential pool, and some let you know in a more indirect way.

Either way, what they don’t always tell you is that these lists are fluid. Each year, people are added and dropped. Most managers are happy to let you know you’re on the list, but avoid having to have the tough conversation to tell you you’ve been dropped. However, there are usually telltale clues that you’ve fallen off the fast track.

It’s been my experience that when it comes to high potential identification, second chances are rare. So, IF you have aspirations to rise to the next level in your organization (and I realize not everyone does) , and you’ve figured out you’re part of your organization’s HIPO pool, you’ll want to do what it takes to stay on that list and not shoot yourself in the foot.

How do you make sure you remain seen as a high potential once you’ve been tagged? Here’s 5 ways:

1. Maintain your performance at a high level.
Although this one seems obvious, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Organizations will often inadvertently do everything they can to sabotage their high potentials . Like it or not, development assignments are not an excuse to under perform. As a high potential, you’re expected to have a high degree of “learning agility” and will be expected quickly climb their learning curves and nail each new assignment. I’ve seen it happen over and over – last year’s rising star, faced with a challenging assignment (often with little or no support), can turn into today’s disappointment one year later. While you don’t want to get risk-adverse and turn down challenging opportunities, it’s a good idea to try to choose wisely and try to negotiate conditions that will improve your chances of success.

2. Take advantage of the development support offered to you.
High potentials are often offered developmental resources that organizations just can’t afford to offer to every employee. These include access to mentors, executive coaches, executive development programs, special projects, international assignments, and cross-functional lateral moves. You may find it hard to believe, but I can’t tell you how many HIPOs I’ve worked with that turn down these opportunities, or view them as a distraction and accept kicking and screaming. It’s understandable- they are probably too busy maintaining their performance at a high level (see #1), and they often don’t understand the how these opportunities can help them perform better in their current role. The fact is, they may not, but they are designed to get you ready for the next level, not your current job, and if you take advantage of them, they WILL. And by turning them down, you’ll come across as not interested in advancement or not committed.

3. Don’t get too full of yourself.
Again, I’ve seen this happen all too often. Sparky is told by his manager he’s next in line for her position and needs to start acting like a leader. Sparky starts walking around like he’s second-in-charge, gets arrogant, and his peers and other managers start to notice. “Hey, who anointed Sparky as our new manager”?

Yes, it’s important to perform at a level above your current level, and you’ll be expected to be learning and practicing new leadership behaviors. However, if you start acting like a little prince or princess, you’ll soon be labeled as someone that doesn’t understand what it takes to be a leader. Leaders are humble, authentic, trusted, and inspire and lift those around them. When it’s time for a possible promotion, your peers should be ready to vote for you, not take a step back and let you hit the pavement during the team trust fall exercise.

4. Make sure you’re getting feedback.
When it comes to high potential development, “no news” is NOT good news. Keep an open line of communication between you and your manager, coach, mentor, employees, and peers. One way to do this is with periodic 360 assessment feedback.

Getting isolated and cut off from feedback often happens during development assignments, lateral moves, and expat assignments, so if you’re in one of these situations, it’s even more important to maintain close contact with your support network.

5. “Market” yourself.
Arrrgh, the idea of “marketing” yourself sounds slimy, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t that be the same as getting too full of yourself?

Not really. Marketing is all about developing a personal brand and making sure your buyers understand your value proposition. Accomplishments are like trees falling in a forest – if no one is around to hear them, they may as well not be real.

Imagine your manager in the next talent review meeting, and your name comes up for discussion. Could he/she accurately represent your accomplishments for the last year, and just importantly, come up with examples of the kind of leadership and potential criteria that everyone is being assessed on? If not, then you haven’t marketed yourself very well.

If you’re talented and lucky enough to be considered a high potential by your organization, congratulations! Follow these tips and you’ll increase your chances of making it to the next level!



Link to original post
]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/5-Ways-to-Make-Sure-You-Don-t-Fall-off-the-Fast-track#0Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:58:47 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/5-Ways-to-Make-Sure-You-Don-t-Fall-off-the-Fast-track10 Elements of a Great Woman’s Leadership Development Programhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/10-Elements-of-a-Great-Woman-s-Leadership-Development-Program
I’ve recently had the opportunity to help design a brand-new open-enrollment Woman’s Leadership Development Program to be offered through the University of New Hampshire’s Executive Development Program. Given that I’ve written about how to design great leadership development programs, I thought it might make for an interesting case study to share with readers how I applied a lifetime of leadership development expertise to this program.

Here are 10 Elements of a Great Woman’s Leadership Development Program:

1. Start with a solid research foundation.
I’ve railed about this before – that is, the importance of applied leadership development based on solid evidence-based principles. I think it’s especially important for a woman’s leadership program, because you have to be able to answer the questions: “What makes this different than any other leadership program?” and “How will this program help woman succeed?”

For our program, we’re building it based on the 2011 whitepaper “Taking Gender into Account: Theory and Design for Woman’s Leadership Development Programs”. It’s written by professors from Harvard Business School, INSEAD, and Simmons School of Management. I’ve been involved in woman’s leadership development programs for over 20 years, and I thought this was the best I’ve seen. In fact, we’ll be using one of the authors, Deborah Kolb, to help us deign it and teach a module on negotiations.

From the authors: “We conceptualize leadership development as identity work and show how subtle forms of gender bias in the culture and in organizations interfere with the identity work of woman leaders. By framing leadership development as identity work, we reveal the gender dynamics involved in becoming a leader, offer a theoretical rationale for teaching leadership in woman-only groups, and suggest design and delivery principles to increase the likelihood that woman’s leadership programs will help woman advance into more senior leadership roles.”

2. Be Ready with a solid business case.
The other question that needs to be answered right off the bat is: “Why a leadership program just for woman?”
This isn’t a question only men will ask – I hear it asked by woman just as often. Younger woman in particular, who may not have experienced blatant discrimination, will say the glass ceiling has been broken.

With all due respect to Jack Welch, the facts tell a different story:

According to 20-First’s 3rd Annual Global Gender Scorecard, 90% of Executive Committee positions are still filled by men, with only 10% by women.

Discrimination still exists – it’s just more subtle – referred to as “second generation gender discrimination”.

Yet there is a real pay-off for companies that choose to close this gap. According to the 2010 McKinsey report, “Woman Matter”, companies with the highest percentage of women show the best performance. In comparing the top-quartile of companies in terms of share of women in executive committees against companies that have all-male executive committees, McKinsey found that the former companies exceeded the latter by 41% in return on equity and by 56% in operating results.

Investing in the development of woman leaders isn’t just a “nice” thing to do – it has a direct bottom-line pay-off.

3. Decide who the audience should be and be selective.
An important element of a great leadership development program is the opportunity to network and learn from other talented participants. You need to have clear program criteria so that participants can make good self-selection decisions, and also be willing to tactfully coach someone out of the program if they don’t meet your criteria.

For our program, we chose to focus on “Mid and senior level women leaders in the corporate, public and non-profit sectors”. We'll be looking for accomplished woman leaders with a track record of success, that are looking to advance their careers. Hard business skills are assumed to be a given.

4. The right topics.
Based on our own research and the input of a high level advisory committee, we started off with dozens of potential topics. However, we narrowed it down to the handful that we felt were critical differentiators for senior woman leaders: Leadership identity, negotiations, career strategies, presence, and leading change. These were the ones that we felt would give woman leaders the tools to address both glass ceiling and “sticky floor” barriers to success.

5. Great instructors.
Instructors need to be well versed in their specific topic (i.e., leading change”) as well gender dynamics. Some would argue that program instructors don’t have to be woman – but we thought it was important for group dynamics and credibility that they should be. I also think it’s important to have a mix of accomplished academics AND practitioners, not just one or the other.

Here’s our all-star line-up:

- Christine Shea, program Director, UNH

- Deborah Kolb, Simmons

- Vanessa Druskat, UNH

- Anne Perschel, Germane Consulting

- Elizabeth Freedman, Bates Communications

6. Great design.
In addition to any of the same design principles that make any leadership development program great (i.e., participant engagement, real world-applicability, challenging content), woman’s leadership development programs need to be designed in a way that:

- Situate topics and tools in an analysis of second generation gender bias

- Create a holding environment to support woman’s identity work

- Anchor participants in their leadership purpose

7. A great setting.
OK, so I’m 100% biased on this one – after all, we moved to this area because we just love it so much. Our program will be conducted in our brand new, state-of-the-art Paul Collage of Business, with dedicated executive development classrooms, breakouts, and dining. Participants can choose from a number of hotels and inn near our quintessential New England campus and the charming seacoast city of Portsmouth, NH.

No matter where the program is located, the important thing is to make sure corners are not cut and every aspect of the program represents a first class experience.

8. Socialization, networking and support.
Again, important for any leadership development program, but even more so for a woman’s program, where the establishment of a safe space for learning and sharing is critical. A “holding environment” creates a space where woman can experience a sense of belonging and identification, where woman can offer feedback, serve as references for social comparison, and become “emotional anchors” for each other’s personal learning.

We’ll be doing this through the use of small group peer coaching, build-in networking opportunities (during and after the program), and exposure to as many role model guest speakers and mentors as possible.

9. Opportunity for on-the-job application.
While personal development and success is important, companies often want to see a more immediate, tangible return in their investment. For our program, we’ll be working with our participants to help them design and implement a strategic change project, most likely directed at addressing one or more of their organization’s institutional barriers to the success of woman leaders. That way, both the individual AND the sponsoring organization gets a good ROI.

10. Individualization.
Although many of the challenges facing woman are common, the program should also offer opportunities for woman to work on their own unique challenges. We’ll be doing this though individual assessment, peer coaching, and follow-up coaching with an instructor/coach.

The final piece of advice I’d offer for anyone thinking of getting involved in woman’s leadership development: grow a thick skin. There will be skeptics and cynics, and that’s OK, hopefully I’ve provided you with strategies to help with them. However, you may also be on the receiving end of some nasty stuff. Just ask Harvey Schachter, a reporter for Canada’s Globe and Mail, who quoted me for a piece he wrote called “Bringing More woman to the Head Table”. Here’s a sampling of the comments we received:

“This is a load of BS until we see the feminist movement lobbying to get more women working in coal mines.”

“What a load of crap. Thank GOD I never had to report to woman during my time in business. I would have quit.”

And my favorite:“...this is a steaming pile of horse sh&t!!!”

This comes with the territory with woman’s leadership development. Now bring it on.

How about you? Your thoughts on woman's leadership development programs? What would you like to see included or not included?



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]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/10-Elements-of-a-Great-Woman-s-Leadership-Development-Program#0Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:42:58 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/10-Elements-of-a-Great-Woman-s-Leadership-Development-ProgramClosing the Door... on Closurehttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Closing-the-Door----on-Closure
Guest post from Julie Winkle Giulioni:

Poll ten highly successful people and you’ll likely find that nine have a very high need for closure. You know that you’re among them if you:

• Feel most comfortable when a meeting ends with a good recap and solid next steps.

• Get an unusual sense of satisfaction out of crossing things off your to-do list.

• Consistently are the one who can tell others where they left off with a story (primarily because you really need to know how it ended).

• Sit in the car a moment longer to hear the end of the song.

While there’s a narrow, psychological definition of ‘closure’, what I’m talking about here is the more pedestrian, run-of-the-mill need to replace ambiguity with clarity, confusion with order, uncertainty with firm answers, and what’s unfinished with completion.

Despite the strong need that many have for closure, some classic research suggests that leaving things a bit open may actually offer unexpected benefits. In 1927, Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik published research suggesting that humans remember better what’s incomplete. The upside of the discomfort we feel when faced with uncertainty or ambiguity is that it keeps the mind working, focusing, and trying to create an ending, answer, or resolution.

This Zeigarnik Effect is a powerful dynamic... one that individuals, leaders, and organizations fail to use to its full advantage. Imagine what we could accomplish if we tapped the mind’s ‘unfinished business’...

Students might learn and retain more by interrupting their studying and taking a break. (Studies show that studies who take such a break remember material better than those who don’t; Zeigarnik, 1927; McKinney 1935.)

Employees might welcome interruptions and consciously leverage the tension produced toward better results.

Leaders might feel a lot less pressure about having to wrap things up with a tidy bow. They might ask the hard questions that employees can’t answer on the spot, confident that their minds will continue to work the topics over.

Organizations might generate better solutions and capitalize on this motivation toward closure by putting business problems and opportunities out to others and letting them sit and percolate for a while rather than forcing an immediate (and sometimes sub-optimal) solution.

‘Unfinished business’ shouldn’t have a negative connotation... not when Dr. Zeigarnik describes that this ‘dynamic state of tension makes opportunities’.

So, what opportunities do you have to stop closing the loop? What could you accomplish if you just let your mind... (intentionally left incomplete!)

About the author:

Julie Winkle Giulioni celebrates the September 18 launch of her book with Beverly Kaye, Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want. Julie has spent the past 25 years improving performance through learning. She consults with organizations to develop and deploy innovative instructional designs and training worldwide. You can learn more about Julie’s consulting, speaking, and blog at juliewinklegiulioni.com.



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]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Closing-the-Door----on-Closure#0Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:35:49 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Closing-the-Door----on-Closure10 Questions That Should be Answered Before Any Major Change is Announcedhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/10-Questions-That-Should-be-Answered-Before--Any-Major-Change-is-Announced
Have you ever received an email from your manager announcing a significant organizational change that left you with more questions than answers? Sure, you could take the initiative and ask your questions, but given the lack of information, you’re not even sure if your questions would be relevant or not. And you certainly don’t want to be perceived as being resistant or “too focused on the details and not seeing the big picture”.

Or, have you ever attended a meeting in which a major change was announced, again, with lots of rhetoric and little substance? While sometimes there may be a few minutes at the end for questions, however, very few hands will be raised.

Now, after the meeting – in the hallways and in back in the cubicles -  that’s when all of the questions get asked. And unfortunately, no one is there to respond.

In either case, the end result is confusion, anxiety, fear, loss of engagement, and hundreds of hours of loss productivity.

Senior managers often announce these changes with good intentions. They want to get the word out as soon as legally possible, and they often don’t have all of the details. They often don’t have the time, expertise, or staff support to spend hours crafting elaborate “change management” communication plans.

The good news is, they don’t have to have all of the details. That’s not what employees need. They also don’t have to turn an announcement into a bureaucratic planning exercise. Really, all they need to do is use the following simple checklist.

If you are either announcing a change, or receiving direction on change, here are the 10 key questions that need to be CLEARLY addressed:

1. What is the change?

2. What business issue (s) is driving this change?

3. Why should we care?

4. How will this change help address these issues?

5. What alternatives were considered? What were the pros and cons of each alternative?

6. Why must this change succeed?

7. Where does this change fit with other organizational priorities?

8. How will people emotionally respond to this change, and how should we acknowledge their feelings (the good or bad)?

9. What is the first action we need to take?

10. What are the milestones we will use to measure progress?

Take the time upfront to answer or get answers to these questions and you’ll see a significant return on your time invested.



Link to original post]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/10-Questions-That-Should-be-Answered-Before--Any-Major-Change-is-Announced#0Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:22:24 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/10-Questions-That-Should-be-Answered-Before--Any-Major-Change-is-AnnouncedWhich will get you Promoted to CEO: Nasty or Nice?http://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Which-will-get-you-Promoted-to-CEO--Nasty-or-Nice-
The answer may surprise you, according to new research from PDI Ninth House. While being nasty (intimidating others but lacking consideration) will get you to the business unit leaders level, these traits will leave you out of the running for C-level roles.

Here's the complete 8/28 press release:

New PDI Ninth House Pulse on Leaders research pinpoints personality traits that can both help and hinder one’s advancement through leadership levels, and uncovers stark differences between key traits for business unit leaders and CEOs.
Specifically, the Pulse research found certain traits, which facilitate advancement to the business unit leader level, actually inhibit progression to the CEO level. Business unit leaders scored the highest in terms of displaying competitiveness and intimidating others, and the lowest in being considerate. CEOs, in contrast, scored highest in being considerate, displaying influence and taking charge, and were the least likely to be intimidating to others.

The Pulse research suggests leaders who are competitive and intimidating but lack consideration may find success and advance up to a certain point. However, the research also shows that those who progress to the top use influence rather than intimidation to direct in a positive way, and temper their competitiveness. Consequently, leaders may find it difficult to advance to C-suite roles without shedding those previously-rewarded personality traits.

“The leadership ladder is shaped like a pyramid, with leaders vying for fewer and fewer spots as they advance in an organization, and this can breed competition — it’s a natural human tendency,” said Stu Crandell, Ph.D., senior vice president, PDI Ninth House. “However, at the senior executive level, these traits become derailing behaviors, so it’s critical for leaders to let go of these tendencies and emphasize the right positive traits, or they run the risk of eliminating themselves from consideration for these roles.”

In comparing leaders at different points in the leadership pipeline, the research identified the top three traits successful leaders must increasingly emphasize as they progress in their career, starting as first-level leaders and then as they move up through the roles of mid-level leaders, business unit leaders, senior executives and, ultimately, the chief executive officer (CEO):

· Influence over others, including regularly selling ideas and, in turn, gaining acceptance and prompting others to help carry out those ideas.

· High energy levels to adequately accommodate the increase in time demands that occurs between ascending levels of leadership.

· A take-charge approach, characterized by a more directive style of leadership that entails regularly delegating tasks and imposing action.

“While personality traits are largely hard-wired, with proper coaching and focus, organizations can help current and future leaders accelerate positive behaviors,” said Joy Hazucha, Ph.D., senior vice president, Leadership Research, PDI Ninth House.

Conversely, successful leaders must let go of the following traits as they move up the leadership ladder:

· Passive aggressiveness, which leaders can steer clear of by being direct about what they think, rather than going along to avoid conflict.

· Micro-management, which leaders should avoid by focusing on managing outcomes, rather than the details along the way.

· Manipulation, which is a tactic for trying to get others to take action by using a hidden agenda. Leaders should instead seek to lead by influence and be transparent about their goals.

· Attention to detail, a trait that should decrease as leaders gain a broader scope of responsibility and have to think in more strategic terms — which is difficult to do if leaders stay overly focused on details. Instead, leaders should assign others to attend to the details.

By understanding what is involved at each level of leadership, individual leaders can more effectively navigate transitions from one level to another. Organizations can also benefit by adequately developing their own talent internally and building their bench strength in preparation for leadership transitions.

“The nuances of leadership are such that even those traits that we largely assume are always good for one’s career — like attention to detail — can actually inhibit effective leadership past a certain point,” Crandell said. “PDI Ninth House understands those personality nuances, and can help organizations empower their leaders to know what personality traits are important at each stage of leadership development.”

About the Research:
The PDI Ninth House research examined 37,398 leaders from 1,340 companies across 147 countries to compare personality traits between levels, progressing in sequential order starting at first-level leaders and moving on to mid-level leaders, business unit leaders, senior executives and, ultimately, those at the chief executive officer (CEO) level.

About PDI Ninth House:
PDI Ninth House is the world's premier global leadership solutions company. For more than four decades, we have provided integrated assessment, development and coaching solutions around critical leadership and business challenges that most directly impact each leader's success and the success of their organization. For more information, contact PDI Ninth House at 1.612.339.0927 (in the U.S. 1.800.633.4410) or visit its website at www.pdinh.com.



Link to original post]]>Dan McCarthyLeadershipCoaching & Mentoringhttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Which-will-get-you-Promoted-to-CEO--Nasty-or-Nice-#0Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:10:03 GMThttp://humancapitalleague.com/Home/post/Which-will-get-you-Promoted-to-CEO--Nasty-or-Nice-