Is it Time to Make a Change?

What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, written by executive coaching guru Marshall Goldsmith, helps us discover the 20 workplace habits you need to break if you have an interest in becoming even more successful.

Think about it. Often times, our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness. As leaders we must learn to apply our strengths selectively and learn in which situations they can do more harm than good. At Helios I pride myself in believing that we have a ‘feedback rich culture’.  High potential employees and star performers are very good at receiving feeddback. They don’t become defensive as they desire to improve their performance. They take accountability for their actions.

In Goldsmith’s book he trys to help us discover what is holding us back from the next level of  success.  The very attributes that may have lead to our success: drive/self reliance/determination/impatience–could now be the things holding us back. 

A colleague recently shared with me her theory that to really change a behavior that is impeding your growth either a major life altering event must occur (that “aha” moment) or you may “suffer a thousand cuts” before you are motivated to make the change.  It’s like the saying ”when the student is ready,  the teacher will appear.” 

In chapter 13 of  Goldsmith’s book he stresses how most people believe that they will work on behavior change when things slow down long enough that they can focus on making the change.   When we get over this next hurdle, when the next big project has been completed, when we have time! 

Goldsmith encourages us to recognize that the time to change is ‘now’.   He asks us to ask ourselves, “What am I willing to change now?”  Just ask that one question.  It will be enough, for now.

~Kathy Albarado

Employee/Leadership Development is Key in 2010

Thanks to Lee Self , President of Renaissance EXECUTIVE FORUMS - Northern Virginia, for the great article in her recent newsletter. Lee can be reached at www.EXECUTIVEFORUMS.com/LSelf

As we’ve turned the calendar page to the New Year and decade, business leaders are beginning to take stock of their talent management goals for 2010. While 2009 was all about cutting costs and in some cases, people, 2010 has a decidedly new look and feel. In talking with leaders across industries, a new theme is emerging: many are concerned about what they can do to further engage and hold onto their top performers. The “word on the street” is that the “hi-pots” (or high potential employees) are dusting off their resumes, and waiting for the market to turn. Even if the turn-around takes longer than we all hope, the concern is a valid one. From the angle of the employee who is delivering strong results, this is a critical time for the employer to invest in that individual’s growth and development for the future. For once, the employee’s desire for new challenges and career opportunities may be very well-aligned with the business’ needs for new talent to lead within the next two to five years. So, the natural question is this—What should my organization be doing now to address our top employees’ development needs, as well as our organization’s needs for leadership talent in the future?

Developing Leaders On a Shoestring
If leadership development is key in 2010, how can a company in a “recovering” economic environment make that happen? Here are a few simple, practical steps to consider that will not break the bank:

• Identify the people who are among the 20% of your employees who are delivering 80% of your financial (revenue and/or profit) goals. After you take a look at this list, work with your management team to select the ones who have the potential to lead others in your organization within the next 2 to 3 years.

• Meanwhile, create a simple plan for making the development of these people a priority over the next 12 -24 months. Identify a champion, whether internal or external, to keep the project on track.

• Make the first priority an individual meeting with each selected high potential individual. First, thank the employee for what they are doing, especially in these tough times, to deliver value in your organization. Then, let the individual know that they are being singled out as a potential leader for the future. Make sure that he or she understands that development is a personal responsibility, but the company is investing resources in providing personal assistance throughout the process. The message is this: we see you as a part of our future, and are willing to invest time and energy in helping you to develop to your highest potential.

• Create a sample Individual Development Plan*, and provide a basic workshop in how to go about creating your own plan. Make someone available, whether inside or outside the company, to serve as coach or mentor to each selected employee in reviewing his or her plan, and help in fine-tuning it. Insure that your internal champion is tasked with checking up on the progress of each individual toward the accomplishment of the plan.

• If economically feasible, enable your high potential employee to attend a leadership class or workshop, or put together a short session using an existing internal leader. If you can’t afford the time or money for formal training, make a good reading list available. Once a month, invite the future leaders to a lunch meeting, and discuss lessons learned from one of the current titles.

• Follow-through is the most critical element of the plan. Don’t promise to help your folks develop if you can’t stick with it. While the employee is working their Individual Development Plan, consider having some sort of group activity at least every other month for all of the selected individuals. They will be encouraged and energized by the other high performers who are also anxious to learn and grow.

Conclusion
With a minimal investment of time and money, you will be surprised what can be accomplished. By leveraging the talents of existing leaders, while providing high performers with a framework and some modest support, many organizations achieve significant results. So, take our advice and stop complaining about the leadership drought and worrying about the retention of your top talent… simply make leadership development a 2010 priority.

by Terry L. Comp and Larry B. Comp

~Kathy Albarado

Can Working Remotely Work?

Samantha Byrd, HR Business Partner

With ubiquitous intranet connectivity, advanced telecommunication and networking technology, employer initiatives for work life balance, shrinking travel budgets, and disaster preparedness planning, many professionals are logging in, signing on, pinging, tweeting, or connecting to networks from home offices, hotel rooms, telecommuting locations or handhelds.

How can working remotely work?

Remote workforces are neither a reward for good behavior or for stellar performance. They are a business necessity. The opportunity to work remotely should not be a reward for good behavior or stellar performance. The case for working remotely is simple: it meets a business objective that impacts the bottom line. As with managing any team, the following key points highlight how to maximize performance of remote work teams.

Have confidence in your management staff - a major reason many companies resist having remote workers is that they are concerned their management teams will not effectively monitor and motivate remote workers. Managing a remote workforce is not significantly different from managing workers in an office, but requires a greater emphasis on regular, formal communication.

Have confidence in your workforce - provide opportunities for your employees and managers to gradually test remote work arrangements. Start with one day a week, or specific “assignments” to complete remotely. Where employees demonstrate effective performance, managers should encourage and support remote work.

Document performance requirements - communicate clear expectations. Managing a remote workforce is not just about when they are supposed to be at work but what the performance expectations are as well.

Provide the right tools - Software companies have flooded the market with portals, platforms, intranet tools and social networks to meet the needs of companies with remote workers. In addition, employers should ensure the appropriate hardware tools are available to support remote workers. Security and backup protocols may need to be formalized or customized.

Communication is key - There is no water cooler for the remote workforce - no informal communication, no quick project updates in the hall, no popping into your co-worker’s office to share a creative idea. Make sure your remote workforce knows how to connect, whether by phone, email, IM, or tweet.

Manage, manage, manage - remote workforces require increased frequency of contact, and scheduled check-ins. Ensure job requirements and performance expectations are clear. Initially, daily deliverables on specific tasks may be useful. Employees and managers should feel part of a team as if they were in the office. At a minimum, scheduled weekly one-on-one meetings with each employee are a best practice.

There are some added positive side effects to the business case for the remote workforce. Working remotely can benefit your employees who will put in more productive hours and experience fewer sick days. Remote working also removes cars from the road, thereby having a positive effect on the environment and moving your company toward green business practices.

So can working remotely work? Yes, just be prepared, execute, and communicate and you can reap the rewards

Are you Ready to Rebound? ~ Seven questions to ask by Donald Sull

The recession of 2007 has leaders realizing that they must set a broad strategic direction while remaining open to unexpected opportunities that appear along the way. History has proven that volatile markets do produce opportunities. You see shifting regulations generate unexpected sources of funding; changing consumer preferences create demand for new products or services; and distressed competitors selling off assets cheaply.
More than ever, companies need the capability to consistently spot and execute on unexpected opportunities before competitors do. Donald Sull conducted research over the last 10 years, studying firms hat excelled at execution in some of the world’s fastest-changing markets, and most unforgiving industries. Through his research he identified common obstacles that undermine an organization’s ability to execute on their established strategies and take advantage of unexpected opportunities. According to Sull, by asking themselves seven questions, manager can quickly assess their companies’ readiness to rebound.

• Do you miss opportunities that others spot?
o To continually identify gaps in the market, firms need real-time data and the ability to share it widely throughout the organization.

• Are your hydraulics broken?
o Organizational hydraulics are the processes to set strategic priorities, cascade objectives, and measure employee progress in achieving goals. In many organizations, execution stalls when executives deluge the organization with multiple—and often conflicting—priorities.

• Do you reward mediocrity and call it teamwork?
o Executives often socialize bonuses in the name of teamwork, arguing that differential payouts could stifle cooperation and long-term thinking. Sull believes this is a mistake. To ensure execution, organizations should recognize and reward individuals who do what they say they will with large bonuses. Paying for performance also attracts and retains ambitious employees and encourages them to execute on current priorities.

• Are your core values a joke?
o Companies that execute on their strategies ensure they have the right culture, people and leadership for execution. According to Sull, the most agile organizations share a core set of values: achievement that recognizes and rewards employees for setting and achieving ambitious goals; ownership to take personal responsibility for results; teamwork to foster coordination; creativity to challenge the status quo and integrity to offset the temptation to cut corners that can arise when employees strive to hit ambitious performance targets.
• Are you talking about the wrong things?
o Managers spend approximately three-quarters of their time in discussions—hallway encounters, formal meetings, phone calls and email exchanges. An organization’s execution depends on how well managers are able to set up and lead discussions for action.

• Have your Vikings become farmers?
o As a business matures, early entrepreneurs may leave for new adventures or settle into safe routines. New employees join the company for its perceived stability, not for adventure. Firms need farmers of course, but companies with too few Vikings on the payroll struggle to execute with sufficient urgency.

• Do you rely on heroic leadership?
o Executives who dash from crisis to crisis are a sign of organizational weakness, not leadership strength.
Donald Sull is a professor and faculty director of executive education at London Business School. His most recent book is The Upside of Turbulence from which some of the ideas in this article were adapted. To read more, check out Donald’s article in the March 2010 edition of HBR http://hbr.org/2010/03/are-you-ready-to-rebound/ar/1