Sandy Schwan at Evolving Strategies, LLC

Step Out of the Shade and Into Your Talents

"Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?"

Benjamin Franklin

I drive my sister crazy with all of the questions I ask people that I meet. But, if one of my life's missions to to help people understand what they are good at, then my questions must remain. [Note to sis: Coleen, I love you, but I've got to keep on keeping on with my questions!]

By paying attention and asking the right questions, you will likely discover many hidden talents among your leaders, peer, team members, family members, friends, volunteers, yourself. 

Many leaders are in a situation know where they cannot hire more talent. Why not ask the following four questions of the talent you currently have to determine how to maximize your resources? 

1. 

Turn a compliment into an interview.

• Congratulate an employee on a job well done; then, ask exactly what helped her succeed. By better understanding her process, you may uncover an unseen strength.

2. Ask why employees prefer certain tasks or projects.

• Preferences can provide insight into someone's talents. An employee might enjoy a project because it involves a product he cares about or because it gave him a chance to interact with customers directly or because... Knowing which will possibly uncover talents.

3. Inquire about dreams.

• Ask your employee what she would do if she had her career to do over again. Dreams often include an aspect of someone that she doesn't regularly share.

 4. Analyze how people think, not just what they do.

• This one is my favorite. What is behind accomplishments is a way of thinking, particular to an individual, that made success possible. Ask your team member to walk you through his thought process on how he arrived at a solution. Articulating this dimension of how his mind works will help you -- and your team member-- identify the other projects that require his inductive talents. It will l also show him that you truly understand the value of his contributions.

I will also suggest that you consider asking these questions of yourself. I know a number of people in the midst of a job search, and they feel at wit's end with what to do next. I am hopeful that these questions may be a source of freeing your thoughts to find what it is that truly inspires you.

Adapted from Steven DeMaio's How to Identify Your Employees' Hidden Talents. 24 June 2009

Collaboration

"I not only use all of the brains I have, but all I can borrow."

Woodrow Wilson

Not meaning to overwhelm you all with quotes, but that is what seems to be resonating with me lately. When I saw this quote, I thought that it described how I enjoy leaders who do a lot of 'borrowing.' I am a big fan of tossing out a idea that has yet to be fully 'baked,' just to see what and how others will take that idea to a level and place I could not have dreamed of. Try it and see where it takes you....

On Being a Sibling: Pride, Appreciation, Embarrassment

June 19, 2007

"E-Loyalty:

I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Coleen Schwan for all the hard work she provided during the final development phase of the [ ] Project.  Coleen came on to the project at a very late stage and her unique ability to understand the business and technology needs aided in providing crucial information to the technology area during this final phase.  Her dedication to meeting project deadlines required a lot of communication and co-ordination between the business and technology owners.  Coleen has been a valuable asset to the project team.

With great appreciation:

[The Three Client Project Managers]"

Yep. Some things never change. As an older sister, I was put on earth to totally embarrass my younger sister. But, I can't help but be proud. Nice job sis - I am proud of you!

What a great way to make someone's day. Today, choose someone on your team that makes a difference and let them know.

Temp Workers: Key to Knowledge Retention, Innovation

According to the most recent projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the employment services industry, which primarily comprises temporary staffing organizations, is expected to experience more growth than any other industry between now and 2014. The predicted 3.8 percent annual growth rate would add nearly 1.6 million jobs.

In its annual economic analysis of the staffing industry, the American Staffing Association reported that this growth is due to an increased demand for flexible work arrangements. As the employment market changes, companies are viewing temporary workers in a more favorable light. 

The folks at Yoh, a talent and outsourcing services company, said one of the reasons for this shift is the baby boomer “brain drain” — many aging employees are leaving the traditional workforce in favor more flexible and personally satisfying jobs. For these individuals, contract employment has become an appealing option.

Using their intellectual capital to control their employment destinies, an increasing number of baby boomers are realizing their capacity to choose the people, places and projects they work with. In this new era, companies are going to need to adapt.

To retain the experience of these talented individuals, companies must learn how to integrate contract employees into their workforce. According the Yoh white paper, “6 Ways to Optimize Contract Employee Performance,” creating an environment where temporary and permanent employees work together will help retain knowledge and maximize the contributions of temporary employees. Companies will get the most out of these workers by clearly explaining everyone’s roles, creating as much equality as possible and building a team atmosphere.

To retain the contract employees’ expertise even after they’ve moved on, Yoh suggests shadowing temporary employees and documenting their methods. By watching the actions and understanding the reasoning of these workers, companies can re-create their efforts when the project is done.

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Adapted from the January 2007 Issue of Talent Management Magazine

Correlating Competencies: To Each Industry Its Own

Talent research firm Bersin & Associates recently released “The Role of Competencies in Driving Financial Performance,” a study on the relationship among performance reviews, competencies and business success.

The firm found a clear correlation between the competencies used in performance reviews and business outcomes such as growth and profitability in four different industries:

• In the financial services industry, initiative and communication are critical to creating and managing the many mergers and acquisitions that take place in the industry.
• In industrial manufacturing, tactical competencies such as quality and job knowledge are needed to ensure the production of superior products.
• For retail professionals, dependability, personal organization and quality help mitigate the industry’s high turnover rate.
• In the high-tech field, customer focus and innovation help get successful new products onto the market.

While the study consistently found the competencies that drive growth and profitability are different in each industry, some larger trends also were identified. High-performing organizations focus more on organizational capabilities, while their lower-performing counterparts value competencies that build individual skills.

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Adapted from the January 2007 issue of Talent Management

Compensation is on the Rise in 2007

It seems like there are lots of projections on compensation crossing my desk this month as the new year kicks off. Here are the results of another survey on compensation trends that reflects the perspective of 240+ global senior executives and managers conducted by NFI Research.

Compensation will rise this year at the majority of businesses.

• Eighty-four percent of executives and managers expect the compensation of their team members to increase.
• Sixteen percent of executives and managers expect compensation will remain the same.
• No executives and managers see a decrease in compensation.

The top three reasons executives and managers give for the compensation increase:

1. Business conditions (58 percent)
2. Performance (47 percent)
3. Employee retention (46 percent)

“Market conditions are the primary driver of compensation increase as businesses try to retain employees to handle the expected business growth,” NFI CEO Chuck Martin said.

There were no great differences in responses between senior executives and managers or organization size.

Interested in learning more? Visit http://www.netfutureinstitute.com.

Survey: Most Companies Do Poor to Average Job Integrating New Managers

Please don't spend your corporate dollars to work with me until you've read this entry. I've noted some tips below on how to improve the performance and retention of newly recruited managers. If you want to discuss further, let me know. I am happy to help. There is no sense in wasting time or money - or frazzling the nerves of everyone involved! - when you can easily resolve this issue.

Almost two-thirds of companies say they do less than a good job of integrating newly recruited managers and executives into their organizations, according to a survey by Salveson Stetson Group.

Sixty-five percent of companies said they do an average or poor job of assimilating newly hired management employees into their organizations, with 46 percent rating their efforts as average and 17 percent as poor, according to the survey of about 100 companies.

Only 25 percent said their organizations do a good job, while 10 percent categorized their integration efforts as excellent.

“Once the hiring process is complete, many companies fail to provide sufficient assistance to integrate newly recruited executives into their organizations, which can lead to poor performance and an early voluntary or involuntary exit,” said John Salveson, Salveson Stetson Group co-founder and principal.

Here's what can you do to improve the performance and retention of newly recruited managers:

Help adequately assimilate new hires into your organization’s culture.

“Lack of cultural fit is one of the biggest reasons why newly recruited employees fail,” said Sally Stetson, Salveson Stetson Group co-founder and principal. “A comprehensive on-boarding process that identifies cultural values, introduces key internal stakeholders and takes the pulse of the business units and departments new executives are inheriting will significantly decrease ramp up time, and can turn potential hiring mistakes into key contributors to the leadership team.”

If you are a newly hired executive and you find your new company doesn't have much of an on-boarding process, then create your own. Check out books like 'The First Ninety Days' as a guideline.

Help clarify the most important critical objectives of the job. Assist new hires in determining the most important goals of their new jobs and establish a time frame for achieving them.

"Both the employer and the new hire need to know what success looks like," Salveson said. "Outlining a clear plan for the first year, which includes defined and measurable goals, facilitates a more successful integration. Without it, many new executives flounder a bit early on in their tenures while they attempt to identify key objectives. Having an agreed-upon plan serves as a framework to measure the new hire's performance and aligns expectations between the executive and his/her boss. The newly recruited executive’s performance within the first 12 months will be judged primarily by how well he or she has attained these primary objectives."

Assist new hires in building team work with subordinates and peers.

“New management hires need to establish good working relationships not only with their bosses but with their direct reports and peers, who will be crucial in assisting them to achieve their goals,” Stetson said. “New management hires frequently overlook the importance of establishing a rapport with peers within their functional areas and departments and in other areas of their organizations.”

Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich, And Powerful People

Justin Valentine, a friend of mine at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University recently recommended that I read a book by one of his professors entitled 'Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich, And Powerful People’ by Jeswald W. Salacuse.  Mr. Salacuse is the Henry J. Braker Professor of Law at The Fletcher School*.

In my current role as an assessor, coach, and developer of leaders across all levels, he knew I would find this book intriguing and spot on in many facets. [By leaders, the author refers to people who have an independent power base outside their organizational roles. That power base might be the marketability of their own talents, their network of contacts, their stature within their professions, their wealth, their ability to access clients/funding sources.]

The most valuable people in and around an organization are often the most difficult to manage. They are the "elites" -- executives, highly educated professionals, investors, board members, experts in critical functions, and others -- whose special talents or positions give them unusual power and independence from those who seek to lead them. These influential individuals are not motivated by visionary speeches, by teambuilding sessions, or by a need to prove themselves (or keep their jobs). They are important assets to the company -- but only when their strengths can be harnessed and aligned with organizational goals.

Leading Leaders shows the reader how to develop one-on-one, up-close-and-personal relationships with these movers and shakers, and how to leverage their expertise for better decision-making. Rather than top-down processes that might apply in a typical leadership hierarchy, the book establishes processes that resonate with these special "followers," including negotiation, strategic planning, brainstorming and more.

Salacuse's core idea is that you must discover the interests of those you wish to lead and then make it clear to them that you are serving their interests. This requires listening, personal attention, framing your objectives in their terms, and respecting their freedom and autonomy.

Leading Leaders breaks the challenge down into the Seven Daily Tasks of Leadership, and shows you how to carry out each task when you have to manage other leaders:

Task 1: Direction - Negotiating the Vision. How do you negotiate a vision for the organization that other leaders will buy into?
Task 2: Integration - Making Stars a Team. How do you make stars a team?
Task 3: Mediation - Settling Leadership Conflicts. How do you resolve conflicts over turf and power among other leaders so the organization can move forward?
Task 4: Education - Teaching the Educated. How do you educate people who think they are already educated?
Task 5: Motivation - Moving Other Leaders. How do you move other leaders who already seem “to have everything” to do the right thing for the organization?
Task 6: Representation - Leading Outside the Organization. How do you lead your organization’s outside constituents while still leading leaders inside?
Task 7: Trust Creation Capitalizing Your Leadership. How do you gain and keep other leaders’ trust, the vital capital that your own leadership depends on?

Drawing on the author’s own leadership experience as well as his research in the corporate, political, academic, and professional worlds, Leading Leaders answers these questions with a clear set of effective rules for all managers to follow in successfully leading other leaders.

- - -

*Jeswald W. Salacuse is Henry J. Braker Professor of Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Formerly Dean of the Fletcher School and of the Southern Methodist University School of Law, he has practiced law with a Wall Street firm, directed a research institute in the Congo, been president of professional organizations, and served as a Ford Foundation executive in the Middle East and Africa. He has been a consultant to multinational corporations, universities, law firms, and international organizations. Salacuse is a member of the Steering Committee of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, president of an international arbitration tribunal, and an independent director of several mutual funds listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Portions of above adapted from publisher.

A book for your consideration: The Cycle of Leadership by Noel Tichy

THE CYCLE OF LEADERSHIP provides the keys to creating companies with strong values, speed and the intelligence to sustain success, year after year. The book describes how you can build a world class "teaching" organization - one that develops leaders at all levels who, in turn, develop other leaders. This creates knowledge while simultaneously aligning your leaders around a set of shared business ideas and values.

In his previous book, THE LEADERSHIP ENGINE, Tichy argued that leaders at all levels must have a "teachable point of view" so they can develop other leaders. He now adds a critical dimension to the execution: Leaders must teach in an interactive, high-energy way that enables them to learn while they teach. The core DNA of a teaching organization is constant, two-way learning, or what he calls "virtuous teaching cycles."

Enjoy!

GARTNER: FIRMS AT RISK OF LOSING WOMEN TECHNOLOGISTS

The world is flat. Better go out and hire some women.

That seems to be the gist of a recent Gartner Inc. report on the gender gap in information technology. According to the Stamford, Conn.-based consultancy, women -- with their strong communication and listening skills -- are "innately better suited than men" to navigate the new global economy.

If organizations don't pay heed to their female technology workforce, women will take their IT acumen and good ideas elsewhere, meaning the looming IT skills crisis just got 50% worse.

Gartner singles out five gender-based traits CIOs should pay attention to when building IT staffs:

1. Bilateral brain involvement in listening: Women are apparently better at listening with both the left and right sides of their brains; this has implications for roles like business analyst and team leader.

2. Spatial visualization, pattern spotting: Men are better at come complex mental visualization and pattern spotting; this has implications for certain aspects of engineering roles.

3. Language: Women are better at a range of language skills, such as verbal fluency. This has implications for analysis of human discourse and writing.

4. Aggression and risk taking: Men take more risks and are happier doing so openly; implications for innovation, competitiveness.

5. Social orientation and empathy: Women score better on social skills, understanding others' views; implications for team building, negotiation.

adapted from article by Linda Tucci, Senior News Writer. 12.05.2006. SearchCIO.com