Tag: Leadership Development

  • KORN FERRY’S PERSPECTIVE ON EXECUTIVE PAY ACTIONS ARISING FROM COVID-19

    A New Compensation Committee Game Plan.

    INTRODUCTION

    “Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s has the global
    economy been under so much pressure. While there are echoes
    of the financial collapse of 2008, the economic pain from the
    current pandemic is far wider and deeper. Fissures have formed
    in entire industry sectors and millions of employees have been
    terminated or furloughed. And yet the biggest casualties of
    this crisis are the tens of thousands of people who have lost
    their lives, and the hundreds of thousands more who have
    been hospitalized.

    Given these unprecedented times,
    corporations around the world have
    acted in unprecedented ways. They have
    found ways to create new virtual work
    arrangements for large segments of their
    workforce. They have kept employee
    well-being at the top of their priority list.
    They have found new ways to stay
    connected to and interact with
    their customers.

    But the crisis has also taken its toll on the
    workforce beyond the obvious impact
    of the health crisis. Companies have been
    forced to shut down large portions of
    their operations, if not close their doors
    altogether. And, as a result, millions of
    people have been subject to furloughs,
    job cuts, or hefty pay reductions.
    Amid this turmoil, executive
    compensation has naturally come under
    an even brighter spotlight than usual.

    Many CEOs and senior executives in the
    companies hardest hit by the COVID-19
    crisis have announced significant pay
    reductions of their own, and others will
    likely follow suit. Cutting pay for
    executives is a visible and potentially
    necessary step in stabilizing some
    companies as they manage through the
    crisis. It sends a positive message to both
    employees and shareholders, and could
    enhance, or at least limit the tarnishing of,
    the company’s reputation. While some
    outside observers have heralded these
    early actions, others have opined that
    they are too few and too limited.”

    Summary

    Korn Ferry has organized a committee of executive leaders who have formulated an actionable Game Plan in the form of a visually stimulating and professional version of a whitepaper, ultimately highlighting useful suggestions for leadership behaviors during times of unprecedented crisis. Their guidance is not only sincere and genuine, but all information presented is undoubtedly provided by experienced professionals.

    To discover all their tips and advice, it is highly recommended to download and read the entire Korn Ferry whitepaper. See link below:

    View Here

    Authors:

    Don Lowman
    Global Leader Rewards & Benefits
    don.lowman@kornferry.com


    Irv Becker
    Vice Chairman, Executive Pay & Governance
    irv.becker@kornferry.com

    Todd McGovern
    Senior Client Partner, Executive Pay & Governance
    todd.mcgovern@kornferry.com

    Kurt Groeninger
    Senior Principal, Executive Pay & Governance
    kurt.groeninger@kornferry.com


    Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm. We work with organizations to design their organizational structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people and advise them on how to reward, develop, and motivate their workforce. And, we help professionals navigate and advance their careers.

  • “The Anatomy of Trust” by Brené Brown

    Background

    Brené Brown is a professor and social scientist. This speech was originally delivered at UCLA’s Royce Hall in 2015.

    Speech Transcript

    Oh, it just feels like an incredible understatement to say how grateful I am to be here with all of you. I feel like I have a relationship with many of you on social media, and you were like, “T-minus two days.” I’m like, “It’s coming! We’re going to be together.” So I’m so grateful to be here with you.

    I’m going to talk about trust and I’m going to start by saying this: One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to research topics that mean something to me. One of my least favorite parts of my job is I normally come up with findings that kicked me in the butt and make me change my entire life. That’s the hard part. But I get to dig into the stuff that I think matters in my life and the life of the people around me.

    And the topic of trust is something I think I probably would have eventually started to look at closely because I study shame and vulnerability. But there’s a very personal reason I jumped to trust early in my research career, and it was a personal experience.

    One day, my daughter, Ellen, came home from school. She was in third grade. And the minute we closed the front door, she literally just started sobbing and slid down the door until she was just kind of a heap of crying on the floor. And of course I was … It scared me, and I said, “What’s wrong Ellen? What happened? What happened?”

    And she pulled herself together enough to say, “Something really hard happened to me today at school, and I shared it with a couple of my friends during recess. And by the time we got back into the classroom, everyone in my class knew what had happened, and they were laughing and pointing at me and calling me names.” And it was so bad, and the kids were being so disruptive, that her teacher even had to take marbles out of this marble jar.

    And the marble jar in the classroom is a jar where if the kids are making great choices together, the teacher adds marbles. If they’re making not great choices, the teacher takes out marbles. And if the jar gets filled up, there’s a celebration for the class.

    And so, she said, “It was one of the worst moments in my life. They were laughing and pointing. And Miss Bacchum, my teacher, kept saying, ‘I’m going to take marbles out.’ And she didn’t know what was happening.”

    And she looked at me just with this face that is just seared my mind and said, “I will never trust anyone again.” And my first reaction, to be really honest with you, was, “Damn straight, you don’t tell anybody anything but your Mama.”

    Yeah, right? That’s it. I mean, that was my … “You just tell me. And when you grow up and you go off to school, Mama will go too. I’ll get a little apartment.” And the other thing I was thinking to be quite honest with you is, “I will find out who those kids were.” And while I’m not going to beat up a nine year old, I know their mamas.

    You know, that’s the place you go to. And I’m like, “How am I going to explain trust to this third grader in front of me?” So I took a deep breath and I said, “Ellen, trust is like a marble jar.” She said, “What do you mean?” And I said, “You share those hard stories and those hard things that are happening to you with friends, who, over time, you filled up their marble jar. They’ve done thing after thing after thing where you’re like, ‘I know I can share this with this person.’ Does that make sense?”

    Yes!

    And that’s what Ellen said, “Yes, that makes sense.” And I said, “Do you have any marble jar friends?” And she said, “Oh yeah. Totally. Hannah and Lorna are marble jar friends.” And I said … And then this is where things got interesting. I said, “Tell me what you mean. How do they earn marbles for you?”

    And she’s like, “Well, Lorna, if there’s not a seat for me at the lunch cafeteria, she’ll scoot over and give me half a heinie seat.” And I’m like, “She will?” She’s like, “Yeah. She’ll just sit like that, and so I can sit with her.” And I said, “That’s a big deal.” This is not what I was expecting to hear.

    And then she said, “And you know Hannah, on Sunday at my soccer game?” And I was waiting for this story where she said, “I got hit by a ball and I was laying on the field, and Hannah picked me up and ran me to first aid.” And I was like, “Yeah?” And she said, “Hannah looked over and she saw Oma and Opa,” my parents, her grandparents, “And she said, ‘Look, your Oma and Opa are here.’” And I was like …

    And I was like, “Boy, she got a marble for that?” And she goes, “Well, you know, not all my friends have eight grandparents.” Because my parents are divorced and remarried, my husband’s parents were divorced and remarried. And she said, “And it was so nice to me that she remembered their names.”

    And I was like, “Hmm.” And she said, “Do you have marble jar friends?” And I said, “Yeah, I do have a couple of marble jar friends.” And she said, “Well, what kind of things do they do to get marbles?” And this feeling came over me. And I thought … The first thing I could think of, because we were talking about the soccer game, was that same game. My good friend Eileen walked up to my parents and said, “Diane, David, good to see you.” And I remember what that felt like for me. And I was like, certainly, trust cannot be built by these small insignificant moments in our lives. It’s gotta be a grander gesture than that.

    So, as a researcher, I start looking into the data. I gather up the doctoral students who’ve worked with me. We start looking. And it is crystal clear. Trust is built in very small moments. And when we started looking at examples of when people talked about trust in the research, they said things like, “Yeah, I really trust my boss. She even asked me how my mom’s chemotherapy was going.” “I trust my neighbor because if something’s going on with my kid, it doesn’t matter what she’s doing, she’ll come over and help me figure it out.” You know, one of the number one things emerged around trust and small things? People who attend funerals. “This is someone who showed up at my sister’s funeral.”

    Another huge marble jar moment for people, “I trust him because he’ll ask for help when he needs it.” How many of you are better at giving help than asking for help? Right? So, asking for help is one of those moments.

    So, one of the ways I work as a grounded theory researcher, is I look at the data first, then I go in and see what other researchers are talking about and saying, because we believe the best theories are not built on other existing theories, but on our own lived experiences.

    So, after I had looked at this, I said, “Let me see what the research says.” And I went to John Gottman, who’s been studying relationship for 30 years. He has amazing work on trust and betrayal. And the first thing I read, “Trust is built in the smallest of moments.” And he calls them “Sliding door moments.”

    Sliding Doors is a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow from the 90s. Have you all seen this movie? So, it’s a really tough movie, because what happens is it follows her life to this seemingly unimportant moment where she’s trying to get on a train. And she makes the train, but the movie stops and splits into two parts where she makes a train and she doesn’t make the train, and it follows them to radically different endings. And he would argue that trust is a sliding door moment. And the example that he gives is so powerful.

    He said he was lying in bed one night, he had 10 pages left of his murder mystery, and he had us feeling he knew who the killer was, but he was dying to finish this book. So he said, “I don’t even want … I want to get up, brush my teeth, go to the bathroom, and get back in and not have to get up.” You know that feeling when you just want to get all situated and read the end of your book?

    So, he gets up and he walks past his wife in the bathroom, who’s brushing her hair and who looks really sad. And he said, “My first thought was just keep walking. Just keep walking.”

    And how many of you have had that moment you walk past someone and you’re like, “Oh, God. They look … Avert your eyes.” Or you look at caller ID or your cell phone, and you’re like, “Oh yeah, I know she’s in a big mess right now. I don’t have time to pick up the phone.” Right? Yes or no? This looks like guilty laughter to me.

    So, he said, “That’s a sliding door moment.” And here’s what struck me about his story, because he said, “There is the opportunity to build trust and there is the opportunity to betray.” Because as small as the moments of trust can be, those are the moments of betrayal as well. To choose to not connect when the opportunity is there is a betrayal. So he took the brush out of her hand and started brushing her hair and said, “What’s going on with you right now, babe?” That’s a moment of trust, right?

    So fast-forward five years, and I’m clear about trust, and I talk about trust as the marble jar. We’ve got to really share our stories and our hard stuff with people whose jars are full, people who’ve, over time, really done those small things that have helped us believe that they’re worth our story.

    But the new question for me was this: What are those marbles? What is trust? What do we talk about when we talk about trust? Trust is a big word, right? To hear, “I trust you,” or “I don’t trust you.” I don’t even know what that means. So, I wanted to know, what is the anatomy of trust? What does that mean?

    So, I started looking in the research and I found a definition from Charles Feldman that I think is the most beautiful definition I’ve ever heard. And it’s simply this: “Trust is choosing to make something important to you vulnerable to the actions of someone else.” “Choosing to make something important to you vulnerable to the actions of someone else.” Feldman says that distrust is what I have shared with you that is important to me is not safe with you.

    So, I thought, “That’s true.” And Feldman really calls for this, let’s understand what trust is. So, we went back into all the data to find out, can I figure out what trust is? Do I know what trust is from the data? And I think I do know what trust is.

    And I put together an acronym, BRAVING, B-R-A-V-I-N-G. BRAVING. Because when we trust, we are braving connection with someone. So what are the parts of trust? B, boundaries. I trust you. If you are about your boundaries and you hold them, and you’re clear about my boundaries and you respect them. There is no trust without boundaries.

    R, reliability. I can only trust you if you do what you say you’re going to do. And not once. Reliability … Let me tell you what reliability is in research terms. We’re always looking for things that are valid and reliable. Any researchers here or research kind of geeks? There’s 10 of us.

    Okay. So we would say a scale that you weigh yourself on is valid if you get on it and it’s an accurate weight. 120. Okay. So that would be a very valid scale. I would pay a lot of money for that scale. So, that’s actually not a valid scale, but we’ll pretend for the sake of this. That’s a valid scale.

    A reliable scale is a scale that if I got on it a hundred times, it’s gonna say the same thing every time. So, what reliability is, is you do what you say you’re going to do over and over and over again. You cannot gain and earn my trust if you’re reliable once, because that’s not the definition of reliability.

    In our working lives, reliability means that we have to be very clear on our limitations so we don’t take on so much that we come up short and don’t deliver on our commitments. In our personal life, it means the same thing. So, when we say to someone, “Oh God, it was so great seeing you. I’m going to give you a call and we can have lunch. Yes or no?” “No. It was really great seeing you.” Moment of discomfort. Goodbye. Right? But honest.

    So B, Boundaries. R, Reliability. A … Huge. Accountability. I can only trust you if, when you make a mistake, you are willing to own it, apologize for it, and make amends. I can only trust you if when I make a mistake, I am allowed to own it, apologize, and make amends. No accountability? No trust.

    V, and this one shook me to the core. Vault. The Vault. What I share with you, you will hold in confidence. What you share with me, I will hold in confidence. But you know what we don’t understand? And this came up over and over again in the research. We don’t understand the other side of the vault. That’s only one door on the vault. Here’s where we lose trust with people.

    If a good friend comes up to me and says, “Oh my God, did you hear about Caroline? They’re getting a divorce and it is ugly. I’m pretty sure her partner’s cheating.” You have just shared something with me that was not yours to share, and now, my trust for you, even though you’re gossiping and giving me the juice, now my trust for you is completely diminished.

    Does that make sense? So the Vault is not just about the fact that you hold my confidences, it’s that, in our relationship, I see that you acknowledge confidentiality. Here’s the tricky thing about the Vault. A lot of times, we share things that are not ours to share as a way to hot wire connection with a friend, right? If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit next to me. You know? Yes or no? Our closeness is built on talking bad about other people. You know what I call that? Common enemy intimacy.

    What we have is not real. The intimacy we have is built on hating the same people, and that’s counterfeit. That’s counterfeit trust. That’s not real. So, the Vault means you respect my story, but you respect other people’s story.

    I, Integrity. I cannot trust you and be in a trusting relationship with you if you do not act from a place of integrity and encourage me to do the same. So, what is integrity?

    I came up with this definition because I didn’t like any of the ones out there, and that’s what I do when I don’t like them. I do. I look in the data, and I say, “What’s integrity?” Here’s what I think integrity is. Three pieces. It’s choosing courage over comfort, choosing what’s right over what’s fun, fast, or easy, and practicing your values, not just professing your values, right? I mean, that’s integrity.

    N, Non-judgment. I can fall apart, ask for help, and be in struggle without being judged by you. And you can fall apart, and be in struggle, and ask for help without being judged by me, which is really hard because we’re better at helping than we are asking for help.

    And we think that we’ve set up trusting relationships with people who really trust us because we’re always there to help them. But let me tell you this, if you can’t ask for help and they cannot reciprocate that, that is not a trusting relationship. Period. And when we assign value to needing help, when I think less of myself for needing help, whether you’re conscious of it or not, when you offer help to someone, you think less of them too.

    You cannot judge yourself for needing help but not judge others for needing your help. And somewhere in there, if you’re like me, you’re getting value from being the helper in relationship. You think that’s your worth. But real trust doesn’t exist unless help is reciprocal and non-judgment.

    The last one is G, Generosity. Our relationship is only a trusting relationship if you can assume the most generous thing about my words, intentions, and behaviors, and then check in with me. So, if I screw up, say something, forget something, you will make a generous assumption and say, “Yesterday was my mom’s one year anniversary of her death, and it was really tough for me, and I talked to you about it last month. And I really was hoping that you would’ve called, but I know you care about me. I know you think it’s a big deal. So I wanted to let you know that I’ve been thinking about that.” As opposed to not returning calls, not returning emails, and waiting for the moment where you can spring, “Well, you forgot to call on this important …” You know? You’ll make a generous assumption about me and check it out.

    Does that make sense? So we’ve got boundaries, reliability, accountability, the vault, integrity, non-judgment, and generosity. These, this is the anatomy of trust, and it’s complex.

    Why do we need to break it down? For a very simple reason. How many of you in here have ever struggled with trust in a relationship, professional or personal? It should be everybody, statistically, right? And so, what you end up saying to someone is, “I don’t trust you.” “What do you mean you don’t trust me? I love you. I’m so dependable. What do you mean you don’t trust me?”

    How do we talk about trust if we can’t break it down? What understanding trust gives us is words to say, “Here’s my struggle. You’re not reliable with me. You say you’re going to do something, I count on it, you don’t do it.” Or maybe the issue is non-judgment. But we can break it down and talk about it and ask for what we need, very specifically. Instead of using this huge word that has tons of weight and value around it, we can say, “Here’s specifically what’s not working. What’s not working is we’ve got a boundaries issue.”

    So, one of the things that’s interesting, I think, is one of the biggest casualties with heartbreak and disappointment and failure and our struggle, is not just the loss of trust with other people, but the loss of self trust. When something hard happens in our lives, the first thing we say is “I can’t trust myself. I was so stupid. I was so naive.”

    So, this BRAVING acronym works with self-trust too. So, when something happens … I just recently went through a really tough failure, and I had to ask myself, “Did I honor my own boundaries? Was I reliable? Can I count on myself? Did I hold myself accountable? Was I really protective of my stories? Did I stay in my integrity? Was I judgmental toward myself? And I give myself the benefit of the doubt? Was I generous toward myself?”

    Because if braving relationships with other people is braving connection, self-trust is braving self-love. Self-respect, the wildest adventure we’ll ever take in our whole lives. And so, what I would invite you to think about when you think about trust is if your own marble jar is not full, if you can’t count on yourself, you can’t ask other people to give you what you don’t have. So we have to start with self-trust.

    There’s a great quote from Maya Angelou that says, “I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves, but say I love you.” Right?

    She quotes an African proverb when she said that, and she said, “Be wary of the naked man offering you a shirt.” And so, a lot of times if you find yourself in struggle with trust, the thing to examine first is your own marble jar, how you treat yourself. Because we can’t ask people to give to us something that we do not believe we’re worthy of receiving. And you will know you’re worthy of receiving it when you trust yourself above everyone else. So, thank y’all so much. I’m so honored to be here. Thank you. Thank y’all.

  • COVID-19 Crisis: How to help leaders and teams ‘decide how to decide’ their priorities

    We are thrilled to be supporting you with our guest bloggers.
    We’ve had many posts recently about working through the pandemic, check them out here.
    This week we learn how to decide priorities.

    This week’s guest blogger, Dr. Laura Hauser, MCC, helps us in the COVID -19 Crisis by helping leaders and teams ‘decide how to decide’ their priorities

    Here’s what she had to say…

    decide priorities

    When Luke Skywalker questions his ability to use the Force to lift his ship out of the swamp, Yoda tells him ”Do or do not. There is no try,” advising the young Jedi to use the power of giving something his all, not just a try.

    This is wise counsel during today’s novel coronavirus crisis where it may feel like you’ve been dropped into a swamp with no way out.

    Now, more than ever, it’s critical to quickly help leaders and their teams focus, assign resources, and take action.

    I continually hear concerns that some of the most visible and valuable casualties of this crisis are the cancellation of team development initiatives, strategic off-sites, and team meetings.

    They’re asking “Now, what?” How do we decide which team development interventions including off-sites and leadership coaching courses should we focus on now, later, or not at all?

    Jedi Triage – How To Decide How To Decide

    Think triage, like medical professionals during a time of crisis. They use degrees of urgency to decide how to treat large numbers of casualties. Quick assessment is critical to get the patient to the right resources at the right time and place.

    During the COVID-19 crisis, team leaders, coaches, and business partners (learning and development, human resources, talent managers) need to become triage experts.

    It’s a critical time for you to summon your Jedi superpowers to quickly assess and focus on your team’s work and development.

    Developing a simple, effective way to define criteria will help you decide how to decide while bringing your Jedi skills of timeliness, compassion, calmness, wisdom, and resources to bear.

    People want to focus on the right priorities, particularly during a time of crisis. They need compassion amid their personal circumstances and clarity about their work priorities.

    The Power of Urgency and Importance

    Like medical first-responders, your job is to help leaders and their teams quickly assess and prioritize using two core elements: Urgency and Importance.

    Urgent matters require immediate action

    Think customer or technology firestorms that could severely affect the business, NOW. They require us to stop what we are doing and attend to the current situation. Ask how critical is it to run the business? What is the level of impact on strategy, people, customers, etc.?

    Important matters require time for thoughtful planning and delivery

    These activities have the potential to profoundly affect the well-being and success of the business but don’t need to be done now. They require thoughtful time, energy and resources.

    Even though a team cannot meet f2f during this COVID-19 crisis, we can use technology like videoconferencing to bring us together and address urgent and important matters.

    Jedi Triage Matrix

    decide priorities

    To help you quickly decide how to decide priorities, I developed a simple matrix. Adapt it in any way that works best for you. The elements of urgency and importance to prioritize decisions originally came from Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II, and later was popularized by Stephen Covey and others.

    Do Now = Emergencies

    Important and urgent (top left): Critical to do now. Unexpected hard-to-plan-for emergencies, like consequences of the COVID-19 virus:

    • employees need computers at home to do their work and stay connected
    • customer complaints, unanticipated bottlenecks in customer supply chain and fulfillment processes
    • team members contracting the virus and families need help

    Jedi tip: Too much time in this quadrant can lead to burn-out when stress levels are already off the charts. Minimize time spent here by ensuring that the issue at hand truly belongs in Q1–not just being reactive. Plan ahead–don’t wait until the last minute to address issues so that they won’t become a Q1 issue.

    Do Soon = Essential

    Important but not urgent (top right): These are critical activities that are not as time-sensitive and requires more time for collaboration compared to Emergencies:

    • expand team member’s capabilities to contribute to current and future business needs by learning how to coach each other, and coach their teams through crisis
    • innovate strategic initiatives for growth of the company, teams, and individuals
    • solve problems and innovate new opportunities such as how to shore up our supply chain or cybersecurity during and subsequent crisis

    Jedi tip: Don’t assume that projects and tasks before the COVID-19 crisis retain the same level of importance. Help your leaders and teams assess what’s critical amidst the wicked challenges posed by the crisis. Ask what previous projects can we move to other quadrants? What new projects and tasks do we need to add?

    Wait = Distractions

    Low importance and urgent (bottom left): Not critical but appear important.
    These activities are productivity killers that interrupt a team member’s performance:

    • non-time sensitive requests for information
    • checking emails frequently to see if a teammate needs your help but then gets distracted clearing out unnecessary emails, checking social media posts, newsfeeds, etc.

    These types of interruptions take attention away from Emergency and Essential actions and cause missed deadlines and poor quality work. Minimize time spent on distractions as much as possible.

    Jedi Tip: Intentionally reduce unnecessary interruptions and distractions. Calendar specific time slots during each day for team members to check and respond to emails, texts, and phone calls so that members can concentrate on important and critical items for longer periods of time. Delegate tasks when appropriate.

    Eliminate or Hold = Time Wasters

    Low importance and not urgent (bottom right): don’t require focus right now, and potential long-term risks and opportunities at some future point.

    • activities and meetings no longer relevant to the team’s goals and new work environment
    • long-term future tasks, but not needed in the near future

    Jedi tip: For activities still on your list, help your team assess if it’s still a priority. If it doesn’t fit into one of the other three boxes, or if it isn’t an idea to capture for future opportunities, let it go!

    Stay Focused

    During this time of crisis use your Jedi superpowers to triage and help yourself and others focus and decide on the right level of learning and development for the right people at the right time. Help leaders and their teams use some method of prioritization. When coaching, ask:

    • how urgent and important is this (project, task, opportunity, challenge)?
    • where can we best spend precious time and energy to support the development of individuals, leaders, and their teams that fosters enterprise-wide success?

    This will help you create a reality that’s manageable and moves you and your team forward in this time of crisis.

    And most importantly, remember to breathe. May the Force be with you.


    Tell us what you’ve learned about how to decide priorities or what you can add to the conversation by commenting on this blog or by connecting with your colleagues on our Facebook page.

    Here is some information about the author:

    laura hauser

    Dr. Laura Hauser, MCC, MCEC, works with corporate leaders (and professionals who develop leaders and teams), to help them build their capacity and courage to build healthy workplace cultures. She is an internationally-recognized thought leader and researcher in the highly specialized space of team coaching. Using the art of science, she teaches, coaches, supervises and consults in a way that expands people’s mindsets needed to excel during complex times. Laura is the developer of the Team Coaching Operating System®, an ACSTH coaching school accredited by the International Coach Federation. Contact Laura at engage@leadership-strategies.com or via her LinkedIn profile

  • Managerial Competencies and Organizational Levels

    I was talking recently with a very smart psychologist about IBM; I noted that IBM’s stock has gone down steadily for the past six years, and he said: “IBM is well managed but poorly led.” This perceptive observation assumes that managers’ jobs change as they move from supervisor to manager to executive. I have always thought that leadership is the same at any level, but many people believe that the roles of managers, and the competencies needed to perform in those roles, change as they advance in organizations. I know little about this, so I asked Rob Kaiser and, as usual, he was helpful—in part because he organized an entire issue of The Psychologist-Manager Journal (2011, Volume 14) on this subject.

    The particular strength of the articles in Kaiser’s issue of the journal is that they present real data, based on good measures and a comprehensive set of competencies, data that show clearly how the requirements of management jobs change with changes in organizational status. The published literature on this topic is quite large and somewhat complex. I believe I can summarize the major lessons of the literature in terms of four points.

    The first point is that management levels can be usefully conceptualized in terms of three categories:  (1) Supervisors, who are responsible for organizing employees’ work, assigning tasks, and holding people accountable for their performance; (2) Managers, who coordinate the efforts of work teams with the requests of top management; (3) Executives, who set the direction for the organization. Even with these simple definitions it is apparent that people do different things at different levels of management.

    The second point is that De Meuse, et al. (2011) show that certain prominent competencies (e.g., Humor, Personal Disclosure, and Compassion), are irrelevant. Specifically, ratings for sense of humor, willingness to disclose, and showing compassion are uncorrelated with managerial performance at any level. Consider Personal Disclosure. It is defined as “…willing to share thoughts about personal strengths, weaknesses, and limitations; admits mistakes and shortcomings; is open about personal beliefs and feelings; is easy to get to know for those who interact with him/her regularly.” Personal Disclosure is the core of Authentic Leadership theory and these data indicate that it is irrelevant for managerial performance.

    The third point is that certain competencies are in fact important at any level. These include Customer Focus, Functional/Technical Skills, Decision Quality, and Ethics and Values. I can’t resist noting that these competencies are at the core of the “Hogan Leadership Model.” The data provided by Kaiser, et al. (2011) contain two interesting findings. The first concerns the importance of being decisive versus being participative when making decisions. Effective Managers are rated as high decisive, low participative, whereas effective Executives are rated as low decisive, high participative. Second, Kaiser’s data indicate that “learning agility” is needed at every managerial level, and that “abrasiveness” is undesirable at any level. These data are consistent with Kaiser’s claim that adaptability (i.e., learning agility) is the “g” factor in managerial performance.

    The last point is that certain competencies are important for Supervisors, even more important for Managers, and crucial for Executives. These competencies are Managerial Courage, Command Skills, Business Acumen, and Perspective. This is also consistent with our leadership model.

    These four points summarize what we know in a data-based way about how managers’ jobs change as they move up organizational hierarchies. I would like to close with two observations, the first concerns the practical consequences of these data, the second concerns a shortcoming in these analyses. Regarding the practical consequences, executive coaches all know that many managers fail after being promoted. A common cause of failure concerns being unable to adapt to the promotion. We distinguish between working in the business and working on the business. Working in the business involves assigning tasks, giving clear instructions, and holding people accountable. Working on the business means putting problems in perspective, evaluating past decisions based on present evidence, and anticipating problems based on potential changes in customer demands. This involves the distinction between tactical and strategic thinking. Tactical thinking concerns implementation issues, budget allocation, and short-term deadlines; strategic thinking concerns innovation, profit generation, and longer-term opportunities. Smart, hardworking, honest executives often fail because they focus on tactical issues at the expense of strategic opportunities.

    The second problem with discussions of leadership based on competency models concerns the problem of derailment. The data show that 65% to 75% of existing managers struggle to perform well at any level. Competency models focus on strengths, but as Rob Kaiser tells us, strengths become problems when they are overused; thus, more of any competency is not always better. Conversely, more versatility (or learning agility) is always better. In addition, Kaiser’s data also show that unpleasant tendencies (e.g., abrasiveness) can co-exist with important strengths, and the unpleasant tendencies can cancel the benefits of important strengths. All of this suggests that competency-based analyses of leadership need to be qualified by considerations of versatility and the dark side of personality.

    Author: Robert Hogan

  • AI Is Changing Work — and Leaders Need to Adapt

    As AI is increasingly incorporated into our workplaces and daily lives, it is poised to fundamentally upend the way we live and work. Concern over this looming shift is widespread. A recent survey of 5,700 Harvard Business School alumni found that 52% of even this elite group believe the typical company will employ fewer workers three years from now.

    The advent of AI poses new and unique challenges for business leaders. They must continue to deliver financial performance, while simultaneously making significant investments in hiring, workforce training, and new technologies that support productivity and growth. These seemingly competing business objectives can make for difficult, often agonizing, leadership decisions.

    Against this backdrop, recent empirical research by our team at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab provides new insight into how work is changing in the face of AI. By examining these findings, we can create a roadmap for leaders intent on adapting their workforces and reallocating capital, while also delivering profitability.

    The stakes are high. AI is an entirely new kind of technology, one that has the ability to anticipate future needs and provide recommendations to its users. For business leaders, that unique capability has the potential to increase employee productivity — by taking on administrative tasks, providing better pricing recommendations to sellers, and streamlining recruitment, to name a few examples.

    For business leaders navigating the AI workforce transition, the key to unlocking the productivity potential while delivering on business objectives lies in three key strategies: rebalancing resources, investing in workforce reskilling and, on a larger scale, advancing new models of education and lifelong learning.

    Solution #1: Reallocate Capital Resources

    Our research report, offers a window into how AI will change workplaces through the rebalancing and restructuring of occupations. Using AI and machine learning techniques, our MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab team analyzed 170 million online job posts between 2010 and 2017. The study’s first implication: While occupations change slowly — over years and even decades — tasks become reorganized at a much faster pace.

    Jobs are a collection of tasks. As workers take on jobs in various professions and industries, it is the tasks they perform that create value. With the advancement of technology, some existing tasks will be replaced by AI and machine learning. But our research shows that only 2.5% of jobs include a high proportion of tasks suitable for machine learning. These include positions like usher, lobby attendant, and ticket taker, where the main tasks involve verifying credentials and allowing only authorized people to enter a restricted space.

    Most tasks will still be best performed by humans — whether craft workers like plumbers, electricians and carpenters, or those who do design or analysis requiring industry knowledge. And new tasks will emerge that require workers to exercise new skills.

    As this shift occurs, business leaders will need to reallocate capital accordingly. Broad adoption of AI may require additional research and development spending. Training and reskilling employees will very likely require temporarily removing workers from revenue-generating activities.

    More broadly, salaries and other forms of employee compensation will need to reflect the shifting value of tasks all along the organization chart. Our research shows that as technology reduces the cost of some tasks because they can be done in part by AI, the value workers bring to the remaining tasks increases. Those tasks tend to require grounding in intellectual skill and insight—something AI isn’t as good at as people.

    In high-wage business and finance occupations, for example, compensation for tasks requiring industry knowledge increased by more than $6,000, on average, between 2010 and 2017. By contrast, average compensation for manufacturing and production tasks fell by more than $5,000 during that period. As AI continues to reshape the workplace, business leaders who are mindful of this shifting calculus will come out ahead.

    Solution # 2: Invest in Workforce Training

    Companies today are held accountable not only for delivering shareholder value, but for positively impacting stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, communities and employees. Moreover, investment in talent and other stakeholders is increasingly considered essential to delivering long-term financial results. These new expectations are reflected in the Business Roundtable’s recently revised statement on corporate governance, which underscores corporations’ obligation to support employees through training and education “that help develop new skills for a rapidly changing world.”

    Millions of workers will need to be retrained or reskilled as a result of AI over the next three years, according to a recent IBM Institute for Business Value study. Technical training will certainly be a necessary component. As tasks requiring intellectual skill, insight and other uniquely human attributes rise in value, executives and managers will also need to focus on preparing workers for the future by fostering and growing “people skills” such as judgement, creativity and the ability to communicate effectively. Through such efforts, leaders can help their employees make the shift to partnering with intelligent machines as tasks transform and change in value.

    Solution #3: Educate for the Future Today

    As AI continues to scale within businesses and across industries, it is incumbent upon innovators and business leaders to understand not only the business process implications, but also the societal impact. Beyond the need for investment in reskilling within organizations today, executives should work alongside policymakers and other public and private stakeholders to provide support for education and job training, encouraging investment in training and reskilling programs for all workers.

    Our research shows that technology can disproportionately impact the demand and earning potential for mid-wage workers, causing a squeeze on the middle class. For every five tasks that shifted out of mid-wage jobs, we found, four tasks moved to low-wage jobs and one moved to a high-wage job. As a result, wages are rising faster in the low- and high-wage tiers than in the mid-wage tier.

    New models of education and pathways to continuous learning can help address the growing skills gap, providing members of the middle class, as well as students and a broad array of mid-career professionals, with opportunities to build in-demand skills. Investment in all forms of education is key: community college, online learning, apprenticeships, or programs like P-TECH, a public-private partnership designed to prepare high school students for “new collar” technical jobs like cloud computing and cybersecurity.

    Whether it is workers who are asked to transform their skills and ways of working, or leaders who must rethink everything from resource allocation to workforce training, fundamental economic shifts are never easy. But if AI is to fulfill its promise of improving our work lives and raising living standards, senior leaders must be ready to embrace the challenges ahead.

    Article appears in Harvard Business Review

    Author: Martin Fleming, who is IBM’s Chief Economist and Vice-President.

  • As A Female Founder, I Don’t Have 108 Years for Gender Parity

    Following the release of our recent report “A Decade in Review: Funding to the Female Founders” Crunchbase is highlighting female founders who are paving the way for the next generation of glass-ceiling-smashers. The “Female Founder Series” is comprised of stories, Q&As and thought-leadership pieces from female founders who overcame the odds, raised funding and are now leading successful companies.

    Last year, Geosite arrived at an exciting inflection point in our growth and I was meeting regularly with current and potential investors. One morning I was walking to my office in Palo Alto when I saw my reflection in a storefront window. A light breeze had caught the hem of my floral sundress and it fluttered in the spring sunlight. A sinking feeling stopped me in my tracks and I had the sudden, unexpected thought: I don’t look like a CEO. 

    I brushed the feeling off. I decided I didn’t have time to be slowed down worrying about others’ perceptions. I had work to do and a company to grow. But the thought stuck with me over the past few years as I built Geosite. 

    Sometimes I am still struck by the realization that I have a firm idea of what a CEO “should” look like, and I have to challenge myself to not buy into that or any preconceived notion of how I might be perceived. Maybe I don’t look the way people expect a CEO to look, but I am lucky to feel very comfortable with who I am. Ultimately, it reminds me to keep my own preconceptions in check as well. 

    I founded Geosite two years ago and have built the team to 15 people with $1.7 million in investment and $1.8 million in revenue. With clients in defense and energy, I spend a lot of time in rooms where I am the only woman. Like all founders, I invest considerable time–more than I had originally anticipated–talking to investors, the overwhelming majority of whom are men. It doesn’t matter what we wear or how we look, women will always stand out in these rooms; there just aren’t enough women empowered in leadership, tech, or finance. 

    After years of scrolling through “Meet Our Team” pages on VC websites, the homogeneity of the teams wears on female founders (and founders from any minority group). That’s bad for all of us. It is hard for the underrepresented founders leading their companies and it’s not good for white male VC’s either. They begin to blur together, robbing them of deserved individuality. “I don’t know, maybe I’ve met this guy before…? I’m not sure, they all look the same.”

    I see signs that diversity is increasing, but far too slowly. As a woman running a company now, I don’t have 108 years for gender parity, so here are the things I choose to lean on in the meantime: 

    1. Get a strong tribe of advisers, mentors and friends

    I am extraordinarily lucky that the very first check came from the team that, to this day, is the solid foundation of advice, access, and cheerleading I need to run Geosite. The team at Bee Partners provides incredible support to not only me, but is blazing a clear path in the venture community with 50 percent of their portfolio companies in 2019 founded by women. 

    Beyond having great investors, peers are vital. I cannot imagine running Geosite without my CEO besties. The camaraderie of entrepreneurship is unbelievable and breathtaking: From the highest highs to the lowest lows, peers who can empathize with and challenge you are a critical component to sustain yourself. Practically, it is also important. We expand each others’ networks and refine each others’ decks and pitches to be the best possible reflection of our companies.

    2. Practice introducing yourself

    Heuristics and pattern matching are important in the risky, intuition-filled world of early-stage investing. We have little control over how others perceive us at first glance, and first impressions are lasting. This makes a strong introduction one of the most important, and often overlooked, skills for founders. I learned this the hard way. 

    After a pitch to a few highly regarded partners on Sand Hill Road, a friend from grad school who had become an investor at the firm told me I had done a wonderful job explaining my company … but I had fallen short when it came to my personal introduction. 

    Sadly, many people in VC aren’t going to assume you, a woman, have the credentials to run your company. You have to tell them your credentials explicitly. Make sure you prepare an introduction and practice it, just like you would a pitch. 

    3. Never be ashamed of your ambition

    It is important to have the humility to identify what you do and do not know. Don’t make the mistake of conflating this with a need to hide ambition. If you have the data and insight to back up what you’re doing, do not shy away from stating that you will change the world (or an industry, or lives, or the state of technology). Others will revise down your optimism, so you should not. 

    Building a fledgling startup into a unicorn takes a vision and a superhuman amount of optimism. Share that vision and dream with the people (investors) who have the resources to help you make that dream a reality and with the team who will join you on the journey to make that dream a reality.

    You’ll be surprised how supportive people are when you aren’t shy about your ambition to change the world.

    Rachel Olney is a Stanford University Mechanical Engineering PhD candidate and the Founder and CEO of Geosite Inc. She has taught innovation frameworks and built standard operating procedures for the most elite US military special operations teams. She has also helped create and scale an international program in national security innovation and conducted research for the US Air Force on the Strategic Implications of Ultra Low-Cost Access to Space.

    As the CEO of Geosite she leads a YCombinator backed startup disrupting the geospatial data industry, making it easier for logistically intensive industries, such as Oil and Gas and the Department of Defense and Intelligence Communities, to easily leverage spatial data (satellites, drones, IOT, and cloud-enables SCADA) to increase operational efficiency. Geosite is the first enterprise software to imbed cutting-edge geospatial data into business intelligence tools.

    Rachel was featured on this year’s Forbes Enterprise Technology 30 Under 30 list.

    Original article appears here: https://about.crunchbase.com/blog/i-dont-have-108-years-for-gender-parity/?utm_source=cb_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200320&utm_content=intro&utm_term=content&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRKaU4ySTVPR0psTm1aayIsInQiOiJmc3g3NU9US2o0RGtEQkVLNzRqXC9JRXRiZnpJTk9XNnpEK0Y4OXNGNmFCejNCK085azRuckFycEV3ME9aelZoQVBROTBcL1U4TktLZWhVSlFIUDVoNDQ2cmpaVEcwelh4Tk9TRk5vMUZ2aytNZEhWZkxJSlRmdUt3MHRuck5XdjhkIn0%3D

  • COVID-19 Strategies and Policies of the World’s Largest Companies by Larry Emond and Ellyn Maese

    Story Highlights

    • New teams are critical for developing policies and providing information
    • Learn COVID-19 protocols and business contingency plans
    • Monitor impact and conduct assessments to sustain business function

    Gallup Managing Director Larry Emond gathered the strategies and policies of 100 members of the CHRO Roundtable, an organization that includes the CHROs of more than 650 of the world’s largest companies, for their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The companies in this sampling average $27 billion in revenue with 80,000 employees and most are global organizations. This is what Emond found.

    Crisis Management Teams

    Most organizations have created crisis management teams, task forces or committees with a response tailored to specific geographic regions. These task forces meet regularly to develop policies and provide information to leaders, managers and front-line employees regarding COVID-19 awareness, prevention, management and hygiene practices.

    These teams are also focused on management protocols and business continuity plans to guide current actions and forecast possible responses to future events. In general, their protocols and plans include:

    • developing succession contingencies for all major executives
    • conducting business using virtual, video or audio capabilities
    • restricting travel
    • reducing to business-critical operations only
    • moving critical operations to unaffected regions
    • cross-training team members to perform critical functions in the event of an unexpected absence or quarantine of another team member
    • documenting business-critical functions, processes or procedures in the event of an unexpected absence or quarantine of a team member
    • distributing call center scripts and agent communications

    If an employee is diagnosed with COVID-19, many companies have established protocols like these:

    • Require employees to report confirmed cases — either of self or family member — of COVID-19 to HR or management. The affected are typically required to stay home for 14 days and/or until cleared by a doctor to return to work with confirmation that there is no diagnosis of COVID-19.
    • Isolate employees diagnosed at work; immediately disinfect objects they’ve touched; trace their contact with other employees, customers, and clients; and notify those who may have been exposed without releasing the diagnosed employee’s name.
    • Ask employees to log all contact with other employees or visitors in case they become symptomatic so that others can be informed of potential exposure.

    Travel Requirements

    Most companies have recommended limiting personal and professional travel, and some have assured workers they could decline professional invitations without penalty. Generally called soft bans, these partial travel restrictions have been issued with requests to inform HR of travel and avoid air travel, public transportation and large gatherings, as well as 14-day self-quarantines following travel to affected areas.

    However, hard bans are in effect in many companies, and travel to China, Italy, South Korea, Iran, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan has been prohibited. Indeed, most intercontinental travel — and, more recently, even travel in general — has stopped for the time being, unless it’s mission-critical.

    Business Impact

    Leaders are holding additional meetings to monitor business impact in efforts to protect or sustain business functions. Many companies with facilities in affected areas have closed them and are canceling their own — or their employees’ presence at — conferences, events and face-to-face meetings. Some have been able to move operations to unaffected locations.

    Simultaneously, CHROs are:

    • monitoring supply chains or providers for potential impacts
    • conducting ongoing supply chain risk assessment and operation impact assessment
    • considering alternative suppliers
    • preparing for shortages, transportation delays or communication delays
    • approving additional budget for supplies or additional paid time off
    • reducing or suspending bonuses for top earners
    • analyzing and forecasting potential market impacts

    Wellbeing

    Companies are also assessing risks to their employees’ physical and financial wellbeing. Their mitigation efforts include:

    • instituting mandatory work-from-home or remote work policies where possible
    • closing on-site facilities such as gyms, cafeterias and common areas
    • making revisions to employee compensation and benefits policies
    • granting paid time off for symptomatic employees, employees who must care for family members who are diagnosed with COVID-19, and/or employees with diagnosed cases of COVID-19
    • using standing sick leave, extended sick leave, vacation time, paid time off or flex-time policies
    • increasing sick leave or paid time off for all or on a case-by-case basis
    • utilizing short-term disability, family leave (FMLA) or other existing benefits
    • recommending available Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
    • reminding employees about mental health services for stress management
    • using back-up care programs, childcare subsidies or other dependent care benefits
    • refraining from penalizing time off of any kind
    • permitting unlimited unpaid time off without penalty
    • providing travel/international SOS (medical and travel security) services
    • paying for time spent under quarantine
    • offering work-from-home options or adjusting schedules due to school closures
    • communicating employer-sponsored insurance and other relevant benefits
    • advising employees to avoid public transportation
    • staggering shifts to help employees avoid busy commutes
    • advising employees to avoid visiting high-traffic events or locations on personal time
    • reconfiguring meeting rooms, break rooms and other common areas to promote social distancing
    • expanding the time of meal service to avoid congestion, and asking employees to consider alternate meal times to reduce crowds

    Technology

    These companies are testing technological (e.g., remote work) capabilities, emergency notification systems and updating employee contact information. They’re advising employees to take their laptops or other portable equipment home each night, and they are devoting IT staff to help employees set up remote connections at home, sometimes on employees’ personal computers.

    Leaders are holding additional meetings to monitor business impact in efforts to protect or sustain business functions.

    Many companies have required or are encouraging video or audio-conferencing meetings (e.g., Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams) or phone calls in lieu of face-to-face meetings. They also recommend conducting collaborative projects by video or audio-conferencing, Google Docs, emails or other online channels.

    Communications

    Corporate leadership is communicating frequently — daily, weekly or as available — to address their organization’s COVID-19 response, advice, policies and protocols. Many are issuing FAQ guides, and many are including links to authorities and external organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The World Health Organization (WHO), Johns Hopkins University, local governments and outbreak maps.

    Along with expert advice, these messages often include a genuinely personal element, i.e., reminding workers to get information from credible organizations, assuring them that none of their fellow employees have tested positive for the virus (where applicable) and urging employees not to panic or spread rumors. They will also often encourage employees to obtain enough food, water, medicines and other essentials for their families in case of quarantine or scarcity.

    Corporate leadership is communicating frequently — daily, weekly or as available — to address their organization’s COVID-19 response, advice, policies and protocols.

    Communications are usually tailored to the recipients — whether leaders, managers, employees or clients/customers, respectively — and methods include:

    • social media for public messages
    • email, mail, text messages, hotlines and internal systems (i.e., intranet) to propagate pertinent information
    • signage to reinforce hygiene, screening and other organizational policies

    Members of the CHRO Roundtable are conscious of the effects of their communication, particularly on customers. To that end, many have:

    • Proscribed responses from managers/leaders if contacted by the media. Many have designated media relations personnel who address all questions from the media.
    • Asked employees not to violate the privacy of diagnosed employees or clients/customers in social media messages.
    • Deployed social media and marketing messaging about customer policies and alternative commerce/services.

    Training

    Businesses are rapidly expanding training opportunities. Much of it concerns managers, who are being tasked with assisting in coronavirus containment, responding to employee needs or concerns, and communicating disease-management policies and preventative measures, such as hygiene practices. But CHROs are also creating COVID-19-specific training programs for security professionals, cleaning crews, maintenance and groundskeeping staff.

    These protocols and responses, we’re told, will be operational as long as is needed — the end of May is the current long-term projection — and all are subject to revision. Gallup will continue to report on our findings as the situation evolves.

    Adapt quickly to COVID-19.

    Watch our live webinar “COVID-19: Managing Your Workforce Through Disruption” to get everything Gallup knows about disruption and other crises. Join us on Thursday, March 19, at 2:30 p.m. CT. Dr. Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief workplace scientist, and other experts will share what we’ve learned through research, hands-on experience and our connections with leaders around the world.

    Larry Emond is Managing Director of Global Leadership Advisory at Gallup.

    Ellyn Maese is a Research Associate at Gallup. Jennifer Robison contributed to this article.

  • The Opposite of Fear

    In uncertain times, the leader is the message, says Korn Ferry CEO Gary Burnison.

    Published: Mar 12, 2020

    When we face fear—whether personally or of the more existential variety— the natural inclination for any of us is to be paralyzed. But taking no action is an action – often, an ill-advised action.

    If knowledge is power, then people need to be empowered by information.

    As a CEO, I’ve always compared the leader’s role to that of a shepherd: occasionally in front, sometimes beside, and often behind. These days, however, the leader must be in front.

    Sharing information is critical, but far less than half the battle. Of course, people need to know about strategy, speed, direction, and results. But it can’t stop there.

    Language is an art to express ideas—but the messenger is the message. “Actions speak louder than words” is true for everyone—and twice as true for leaders. It’s not just what you say, but how you say it. It’s not just what you say, but how you say it.

    Verbally and non-verbally, the way in which communication occurs—humbly, passionately, confidently—has more impact than merely the words chosen. 

    Communication is where leadership lives and breathes. It informs, persuades, guides, assures, and inspires. Here’s how:

    Listen for the truth.
    If leaders want to hear the truth, they must welcome it. That won’t happen, though, unless people feel it’s safe to say what they really think without fear of retribution and not just what they think leadership wants to hear. Leaders need to ensure a culture of world-class observers, where information doesn’t just cascade down—it bubbles up. Observation needs to be a “team sport” as people throughout the organization are empowered to speak up and share their views about what they see. Perspectives will differ, but that only enriches the discussion. And, when perspectives are shared, people learn.

    The information highway.
    Communication is far more than a transmission of information. Communication needs to be the “information highway,” flowing freely in both directions and in every circumstance. Important in good times—crucial in challenging ones.

    More assurance, less authority.
    Communication is connecting and engaging with others. Messages must be delivered frequently and consistently, with candor and honesty. That means speaking with more assurance than authority—and being concerned with tone as well as content. Passionate, confident words motivate. Although information is crucial, if the message lacks authenticity, the team’s follow-through may be lackluster—or even lacking.

    People would rather know the truth.
    In bull markets, people look to the leader for validation. In bear markets, they look to the leader for assurance. When faced with a challenge, people would rather know the truth than dwell in the worst-case scenarios residing in their imaginations. Leaders who don’t communicate will become the subject of others’ communication—and not in a flattering way.

    Beware the vacuum. 
    If not addressed, a lack of information can lead to hazardous uncertainty. People will spend their time speculating, because there’s an information vacuum that needs to be filled. Uncertainty breeds conjecture, escalating fear and causing chaos. No matter how serious the news, people prefer certainty. To predict tomorrow, people have to accurately perceive the reality of today. Then you can plot a course for tomorrow.

    No shortcuts allowed. 
    Communication takes time—and lots of it. The temptation, therefore, is to take shortcuts such as assuming that people already know certain information or else glossing over a message from an employee or passing it along to someone else. Take time to acknowledge messages—and the messengers. Show others that they matter. 

    Remember, for a leader in uncertain times—and, in particular, these times—it’s not simply about staying on message. The leader is the message.

    Original post appears: https://www.kfadvance.com/articles/opposite-of-fear?utm_campaign=WuW-2020-03-14&utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWlRJMk0yRTBZekV6WWpKbSIsInQiOiIyU1lTaFwvYzFkMzZkY0E4SXRCNTgxdWhmMndNQnhUVlwvNWttUWs0bnRBM3VVSWExcEpHRDVrQ2NJdTBIVFFod2RzQWxDT1ltZE9jR1ZUXC9uVldYMzlwSElRMit6VDRiQmw0SjFzd1pzN29IaitxM1wvOU9za2dyRXFSQ1ZjWFFLc0IifQ%3D%3D

    Categories On the Clock

  • What High-Performance Workplaces Do Differently

    by Rob DeSimone

    December 12, 2019

    Employees now look to their workplace for purpose and development Companies that create a high-development culture achieve high performance Learn four development strategies to retain your best employees You’ve heard of high-performance workplaces, but how do they become “high-performance”? Gallup has discovered that one of the most important factors in creating a high-performance workplace is instilling a high-development culture: one that values the growth of individuals. Organizations that have made a strategic investment in employee development, Gallup finds, report 11% greater profitability and are twice as likely to retain their employees. It makes sense. High-achieving people (the ones who can grow your company) seek development. And all employees have a psychological need to learn and grow as human beings. Development at work satisfies two of the five essential elements of well being by fulfilling a person’s drive for career and social well being. Having a sense of purpose makes people feel great about what they do at work and helps them enrich and deepen their relationships outside of it.

    Nearly nine in 10 millennials say professional development or career growth opportunities are very important to them in a job. “Career growth opportunities” is the No. 1 reason people give for changing jobs. People need to be connected and involved in their workplace, and they want to be when that workplace offers them not only purpose, but also employee training and development. How to Create a High-Development Culture Perspective Paper Employee Engagement: Maximizing Employee Potential Learn how to build a high-development workplace culture driven by engagement that improves productivity, performance and profitability. Creating a high-development culture means more than adding a few learning programs and development plans to the roster. Here are four strategies that set the highest-performing workplaces apart:

    1. They protect their investment in employee development with a focus on increasing employee engagement. Many leaders fear that they will invest in their employees’ development only to see them walk out the door anyway. This does happen — but the best way to keep it from happening is to secure people’s psychological commitment through an employee engagement strategy. Organizations can foster commitment and improve engagement by meeting employees’ basic needs with clear expectations, sincere recognition, the right materials and equipment — and the rest of the 12 elements we outline in our employee engagement practices. People won’t stay with an organization or perform at their best — even if they’re given lots of development and learning opportunities — if they’re not engaged in their work and committed to the company. Read more about building a high-development culture through employee engagement.

    2. They avoid the most common misunderstanding about development. Companies have typically defined growth and development as a promotion. While effective development may involve a promotion, it doesn’t have to. Often, the employees who are really good at what they’re currently doing don’t necessarily want to be promoted — but they still want growth. From Gallup’s extensive workplace research, development should primarily be: A process of understanding each person’s unique talents (naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied) and finding roles, positions and projects that allow them to combine their talents and abilities with experiences to build strengths (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance in a specific activity). Giving people the opportunity to understand themselves, develop what they’re good at and use their strengths every day at work can be more fulfilling than a new title for most of your employees. Gallup research shows that when employees know and use their strengths, they are more engaged (nearly six times more), have higher performance and are much less likely to leave their company. NEW BOOK It’s the Manager Learn why the manager is key to every aspect of your workplace.

    3. Their managers are highly involved in the development of individuals — they act as coaches, not bosses. The manager is the vessel that makes culture change and engagement a reality. Managers are closer than HR or leadership to employees’ daily realities, so they’re more likely to understand how to develop employees and engage them. And since people are more likely to learn and grow when they receive immediate feedback that is specific and targeted to their development, managers become the perfect people to coach employees and link them to practical learning and action. Learn more about the importance of the manager in employee development.

    4. Their leadership owns the culture change (not HR alone). Culture change does not happen through all-hands meetings, emails, newsletters and strategy retreats. Consistent communication does help. But the fundamental driver of culture change is commitment from leadership to high-performance workplace practices that is backed by their actions. When C-level officers model a focus on development and put resources toward it, managers and employees will begin to mimic that focus on their own. This behavior change is foundational to making culture change stick. The Best Employees Will Always Seek Development A focus on developing people has the potential to outperform practices like Six Sigma in creating organic growth for companies. High-achieving employees continuously seek purpose and development — so if they’re engaged at your company and you provide those growth and development opportunities, they won’t have a reason to leave, and you’ll attract even more top talent. It’s a powerful opportunity for companies to capture the loyalty of hardworking employees who want to invest in their future and the future of your business. Start creating a high-development culture today: Download our latest perspective paper, Building a High-Development Culture Through Your Employee Engagement Strategy. Learn what Gallup recommends for a transformative learning and development strategy for your company. Get our bestselling book, It’s the Manager, to learn more about how managers play a key role in creating your ideal culture. Rob DeSimone is a Gallup Consultant based in Washington, D.C. Jessica Buono contributed to this article. Related Topics Include: Article CliftonStrengths Culture Development Employee Engagement Leadership Learning & Development Millennials Performance Management Profitability Retention Workplace Gallup at Work Newsletter Get the insights you need to create an exceptional workplace. Subscribe to the Gallup at Work newsletter to get our latest articles, analytics and advice. * Email Address * Country or Region I’d also like to be among the first to know about new Gallup offerings and services. I understand that I may unsubscribe from these offerings at any time. Recommended

    Original article appears here: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/269405/high-performance-workplaces-differently.aspx?utm_source=workplace-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WorkplaceNewsletter_Jan_01212020&utm_content=whattheydodifferently-CTA-1&elqTrackId=d70ff841135e453c850d4e8572f3becd&elq=88f3f8febfec49ed937b26c4fb54216d&elqaid=3132&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=696

  • The Human Skills We Need For An Unpredictable World

    The more we rely on technology to make us efficient, the fewer skills we have to confront the unexpected, says writer and entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan. She shares why we need less tech and more messy human skills — imagination, humility, bravery — to solve problems in an unpredictable age. “We are brave enough to invent things we’ve never seen before,” she says. “We can make any future we choose.”

    Original article appears in: TED Talks Ideas worth spreading: https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_human_skills_we_need_in_an_unpredictable_world/transcript?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2019-08-02&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=top_left_button#t-4855