HRINTERACTIVE

No matter what size your organisation, the first impression you make on new staff is all important.  Whether on an individual or group basis, your employee induction process is critical to keeping people with you longer.

You’ve made a significant investment in your new recruit already.  Advertising, testing, interviewing and perhaps placement fees.  Don’t blow that investment by botching up the induction process.

In the current tight labour market, it is the employer who needs to entice the employee.  The Australian Institute of Management reports in its 2007 National Salary Survey that small companies are losing staff at an increasing rate. 

Voluntary staff turnover is at 13.6 per cent, up significantly from 10.3 per cent on the previous year.  And new recruits are particularly prone to leaving an organisation within weeks of commencing their employment. 

Bond with new staff quickly or risk losing them.

Having a number of new staff commence together makes sense.  It might take a bit of organising, but group inductions can be very efficient.  The benefits of a group employee induction include:

• New recruits receive the same consistent message;
• They feel more secure as part of a group;
• They learn more about the organisation through the questions that others ask; and
• Key policies and organisational information is explained methodically.

Once the group induction process is planned and designed, it’s easy to roll out again in six or twelve months time for the next recruitment drive.

Whether group or individual employee induction, it’s important to focus on conveying the key information and policies of the organisation.  And make sure you support everything said with detailed documentation.

Why not kick off your new relationship with an “induction breakfast”?  This is a good ice-breaker and creates a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

It’s important the induction process includes the organisational structure and chain of command, procedures for conflict resolution and an employee’s occupational health and safety obligations.

Make sure you are well prepared for ‘day one’.  Ensure workstations are clean and tidy and operational.  Telephone systems need to be explained, email addresses created and possibly lockers and security passes assigned.

Remember, the professionalism exhibited inducting new employees leaves a lasting impression.

Allocate each new recruit a buddy to aid the ongoing induction process.  Make sure buddies have good communication skills, are friendly and if necessary, are relieved of some of their workload so they are available to commit to the task.

The buddy’s role is important in conveying the cultural tone of an organisation.  As they guide and introduce the new employee, the buddy’s interaction with other staff will make an impression.  Are they respectful in addressing others?  Do they describe different roles sensibly?  Do they show a commitment to the organisation?

There are wild and mixed emotions running through the new recruit’s head during induction.  The induction process must be well managed so that feelings of apprehension are eliminated and second thoughts don’t get a chance to rear their ugly heads. 

New employees must feel welcome, supported and have confidence they have made the right choice.  An excellent program of employee induction raises the odds of hanging onto employees for the longer term.

When it comes to succession planning, many organisations still argue that “they will cross that bridge when they come to it.” But identifying and grooming successors is critical. The most successful global organisations, such as General Electric, 3M and P & G, engage in systematic succession planning to ensure a seamless transition. These organisations believe in having a slate of high-potential leaders.

But it appears that many organisations are just now getting the message. A new research study, “The Leadership Benchstrength Challenge: Building Integrated Talent Management Systems” by Executive Development Associates found that 82 percent of companies expect future talent challenges, and 63 percent say that talent shortages are impacting their bottom lines right now.

Talent shortages mean more than a lack of productivity and innovation. The lack of good people has serious bottom-line impact. It drives up costs, inhibits organisational growth since companies don’t have the wherewithal to branch into new markets, and leads to leadership problems. Companies scramble to recover from bad decision-making caused by unqualified candidates who have assumed leadership positions they were not equipped or trained to handle.

Eileen J. Antonucci, Ph.D, vice president of talent management for Executive Development Associates, calls the current and future talent shortages “the perfect storm.” “The perfect storm is a combination of factors that have come together to create this situation,” Antonucci said. “One of them has been a lack of investment in talent in recent years. The companies that are not suffering as much have really invested in their senior and high-potential talent both in good times and in bad.

The second factor is a lack of skills needed to be in a leadership role today. The demands are increasing with globalisation and virtually dispersed organisations. The constant change and pressure for higher performance need a different type of leader than in the past, and people are not getting the right skills and development, or systems are not in place to even identify what these things would be, to get people to a leadership position. In addition, there’s been a growth surge in markets like China and India, which is causing stress for talent shortages. There’s another major factor coming into play, and that is the demographic shift. The baby boomers are getting near retirement, and they’re going to be leaving senior management. At the same time, you have a decline in the 35-year-olds who would normally be in the high-potential pool for leadership positions.”

Not only is next-generation leadership declining in numbers, it also seems that they lack the inclination to follow in their elders’ footsteps. “This group is not like the baby boomer group that came before it,” Antonucci said. “They don’t necessarily want a leadership position. For instance, we know that an international assignment is a great way to develop leaders. It used to be if you said, ‘You’re going to go to Europe for a year to work,’ the boomers would say, ‘What time? What plane?’ This generation says, ‘Nah, I kind of like my life right now, and I’m not going.’ We have a complexity of skills needed, a growth surge, a lack of investment and demographic factors coming to play to create this perfect storm.”

The skills these new leaders need and don’t have centre around the increasing level of globalisation in today’s businesses. Leaders need the savvy to operate effectively in many cultures and exercise a solid understanding of global markets. In other words, they need to see and understand the big picture. Executives also need to be strategic, which is nothing new, but Antonucci said the different angle is you need to know how to execute strategy on the fly. “They need to be able to see the big picture and at the same time deal with diverse products, services and processes, which takes much broader experience,” she said. “There’s constant change, and they need to know how to manage change, and more than ever, they themselves need to have a critical eye for talent: how to assess it, how to develop their own talent and how to retain it.”

Companies that are dealing with the talent-shortage issue in an aggressive way put someone like a chief learning officer or a chief talent officer in a very visible and critical position, Antonucci said. “A lot of the implications for the chief learning officer are not the different skills that have to be developed, that have to be done quicker and better,” she explained. “It’s that the younger generation just doesn’t learn in the same way. The technology involved - how do you get people into these experiences to develop them? It’s taking a lot more creativity than executives have historically gone through in a developmental experience.”

Source:  Great Lakes HR Now

Orientation, on boarding, induction, employee integration – whatever your company calls it – is probably the only form of training companies deliver that doesn’t regularly get measured for a return on investment.

Forms get filled out, ID pictures are taken, benefits are discussed, and maybe a forgettable video is viewed about the company and its product or services or history, and by that time the new hires are ready to bolt for the door.

People join organisations to do a job, and during their first day on the job all we want to talk about is the rules and reasons we may use for terminating them.  It is not the best use of our HR budget.

Here are five suggestions to improve the on boarding process:

Tie the orientation to more than just benefits, forms and policies.  
Orientation needs to reflect the mission, values, and culture of the organisation.   Whether the company is a family-owned business or a multinational, people want to belong to an organisation whose t-shirt they can be proud to wear at the beach.  Agilent Technologies goes one step further.  On a new hire’s first day, it sends flowers to the person’s home along with t-shirts for the whole family.  MicroStrategy, uses an in-depth boot camp to allow new hires to bond with their new organisation.  The orientation is spread over several days and includes technical training as well as team building.

Get new hires to their work site as quickly as possible. 
Give the new hire a job to do and use all that newfound energy and resource to bump up that understaffed and overworked team that has been waiting for the new person to start.

Use a stepped or staggered approach to orientation.  
Have a brief meeting on the first day, then a second meeting later that week.   Continue to hold brief meetings over the first three to four weeks.  Stagger the times of the meetings.  Have them in different departments or different parts of the organisation.  Use orientation to allow the new hires to get a more complete understanding of the breadth of the company.

Further, allow employees to become aware of all the different activities that are going on in the organisation. 
Many times, people join companies, but they leave managers.   Involve the manager as soon as possible.  Orientation, is more effective when not handled solely by HR.  Face it: New hires will pay more attention to what their managers say than what someone from HR tells them.  It’s the nature of the beast.  Managers held accountable for the success of their new hires are more likely to be involved in getting the new hires started off right.

Give new hires a goal they can reach in the first couple of weeks, or even days. 
People hate it if they join an organisation and then feel that they aren’t allowed to do any real work.   In fact, a SHRM study found that more than 80 percent of people who voluntarily change jobs do so because they want to feel that they have more control over their work and that the work they do has an impact.  People flock to smaller organisations in order to feel like more than just another cog in a giant machine.  A statement we heard in too many exit interviews is, “I’m leaving to go to a smaller organisation where I feel I can really make a difference.”

Adapted from GL Now

We’re usually not as lucky as Newton. Most of us sit around waiting for an idea to hit us when we’re stuck on a difficult problem. But in reality, a really good idea usually doesn’t occur that way at all. People tend to wait for inspiration to come along and light the path towards a solution.

On top of this demand, the pace of today’s workplace puts added pressures on us to perform and produce impressive results quickly. We can no longer wait for the inspiration we need to find answers. We must learn to ignite our own innovation.

Many firms are finally waking up to the importance of innovation as a key factor for their future success. Though innovation has classically associated new products, a number of Fortune 50 firms have implemented corporate-wide initiatives that view innovation as going far beyond products and into all of the processes and activities through which economic value is created.

In this view, something is innovation if it is “new” for you, even if it is not new for someone else. For example, one division’s adoption of a new process or solution from a sister division would qualify. Innovation then becomes the day-in, day-out attempt to improve performance not only by doing new things, but also by consistently attempting to do existing things better - by doing them differently in an intelligent way.

Igniting innovation in your organisation

Does your organisation have an open-door policy for open-mindedness? How are fledging ideas fostered? How are creative risk takers rewarded? If your organisation or team isn’t currently utilising its own creative potential how can you ignite innovation?

Just as constant creative practice is necessary for individuals to become higher quality thinkers, a working environment that supports and encourages innovation every day is necessary for realising your organisation’s creative potential. Here are several ideas you can use to begin.

Brain Bulletin Board:

Create a bulletin board in an area where people tend to congregate. Ask each person to add their thoughts to the bulletin board. These could be anything from interesting articles they’ve read and clips about what the competition is doing to photos from a recent trip they took and favorite quotes they’ve gathered. The result will not only be a public forum for self-ex-pression, it will be a catalyst for conversation and new ideas.

Real Life Example:Electronic Bulletin Board - Whirlpool built an IT intranet infrastructure called Innovation E-Space, which directs employee innovation through the following processes:

• Random insights are systematically generated and shared to spark ideas.
• The home page links prospective innovators to useful tools and resources, from insight libraries and innovation templates to I-Mentors.
• Managers convene cross-sections of employees for formal innovation sessions. Led by an I-Mentor, the teams reflect on customer needs, industry trends, and their own experiences to create insights.
• The I-Pipe provides a dashboard view of the innovation pipeline. It tracks ideas from concept to scale-up and provides project details as well as the big picture, enabling management to focus on areas in need of attention.

Invite Innovators:

Invite alternative thinkers into your organisation to help incite a creative riot. These people are sometimes those who choose not to conform to society’s norm, but they can also be people “not like you”, individuals who can shake your group free from group think and challenge people to look at life from a different perspective. They can help uncover dormant ideas, opinions, and desires and by doing so agitate innovation.

Reward creative risk:

Success is often reached after many unsuccessful attempts. As a result, many people elect to give up early in the process. Both creativity and innovation take time. Reward and praise those who make change happen. Promote those who challenge the established norm and take creative risks. They will help you and your organisation to chart a bright new pathway to the future.

Real Life Example:Failure tolerant leadership - Former Monsanto CEO, Richard Shapiro, sought to change the perception that failure was unacceptable, knowing that it hindered the creative thinking that helped fuel the business. Shapiro explained to his employees that every product and project was an experiment, which can fail only if it was a halfhearted, careless effort with poor results. However, a deliberate and well thought out effort that did not succeed was excusable and even desirable.

A day for creative play:

Set aside a time for focused fun. Allow individuals to explore new areas of interest, connect with each other and test theories. So much of discovery is linked to the spirit of fun. If people enjoy what they are doing they are more likely to commit their entire selves to their work. Only when people are utilising their entire human portfolio of abilities can they begin to reach their creative potential.

Real Life Example:Creativity sessions and networks - DuPont holds creativity sessions that target specific challenges within the organisation and maintains the Oz Creative Thinking Network, which involves a group of employees trained in “creative thinking techniques,” who assist DuPont employees in finding creative solutions to difficult problems.

Remember, the path toward creative ex-pression requires both patience and practice. Believe in yourself and the creativity of others. Learn how to ignite innovation in yourself and your organisation and you’ll soon be able to harness the power of creative potential to make it work for you.

Bottom Line Example:Shell Oil established an internal venture fund, called “Game Changer.” It actively solicits business ideas from employees. Employees submit ideas to a dedicated panel group. The panel group then provides funding to approved ideas through a stage-gated approach that continually tracks and reviews the idea. In 1999 alone, four out of five of Shell’s major new business initiatives originated through “Game Changer.”

Source:  Great Lakes HR Now

Successful employment practices rely on getting the basics right. It takes a little extra effort and some extra time, but that effort is well rewarded. An efficient and effective employee saves time and contributes positively to organisational success.

A poor employment selection only brings problems and stress - even if the person leaves smoothly

Employment success

At a recent leadership development training program, when asked the following question to  CEOs  :

Knowing what you know now, how many of your current employees would you re-employ?

The Answer  was - about 60%.

This answer is consistent with previous groups who had attended similar training , as well as general employment survey research. It means that poor employee selection decisions are regularly made.

Suitable candidates are not being found. About 40% of employees are not performing well or as expected. In some way, they cause their management a problem. It may be poor attitude or interpersonal problems. It may be they cannot perform their duties properly.

Are sound employee selection practices worth the effort?

Recruitment and selection is a good example of the ‘Pareto principle’ - 20% of the effort produces 80% of the results.

It is worth a little extra effort to make a good selection rather than an average one. Spending the time to make a good decision is a sound investment. It is time well spent.

Managing performance problems is a constant theme raised by training participants. Amongst other things, poor performance consumes management time. It diverts attention away from more productive matters.

Managing performance would not be a major issue if team leaders and managers exercised greater control in the recruitment and selection process.

Employee selection tips

The following tips may help:

• Establish clear requirements - what is expected of the position, what are the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to carry out the position responsibilities effectively?
• Probe the candidates in a variety of ways - ask them what they have done/would do in a variety of situations, test their knowledge, get them to demonstrate actual skills.
• Consider how they compliment the other team members - what different attitudes and approaches do they bring?
• Make sure you are fully satisfied - a partially suitable candidate will only cause problems in the long run.

These are basic tips. On the face of it, these tips seem relatively straightforward. However, doing them correctly is not easy.

For example, thinking about appropriate and non-standard interview questions requires some time.

Most candidates should have a coherent answer to:

What are your strongest points?

What are your weaknesses?

Behavioural questions are more helpful:

What would you do if …………?

How have you approached ……….before?

Interviews are not the only thing to rely on - there are other selection techniques as well (see related article below).

Successful employment practices rely on getting the basics right. It takes a little extra effort and some extra time, but that effort is well rewarded. An efficient and effective employee saves time and contributes positively to organisational success.

A poor employment selection only brings problems and stress - even if the person leaves smoothly

Recruitment

The use of career and job websites to advertise vacancies is growing. The availability of online recruitment advertising is encouraging companies to do it directly, bypassing the traditional recruitment agencies.

Online job sites are quick, easy to use and inexpensive.

Although these sites offer tools to assist in the shortlisting process, the key challenge still remains.

The important point is to structure the advertisement to attract the right number of qualified candidates - not too many, not too few.

This involves thinking about the employment market and the likely availability of suitable, interested candidates.

The greater the availability, the more specific you can be with the wording of the advert. If you know what you want in terms of attributes, experience and background, and you are confident that you can attract people, be specific. It saves you time and doesn’t unnecessarily raise the expectations of candidates.

The objective is to attract a manageable number of high quality candidates.

Selection

A job interview can be more than an interview. Skills can be tested just before or just after the actual interview, or even during the interview itself.

In most positions, the ability to read and write is critical. It only takes a few minutes to have someone complete a task that demonstrates that they have the ability to match the position requirements.

In the case of the manufacturing company mentioned above, they had to terminate a new employee’s employment. He could not do what he claimed he could.

He was employed in a trade, but with the specific intention of operating a particular machine. At his interview, he claimed he had experience in the use of that machine. As everything else was in order, he was hired.

It quickly became obvious that he did not have the necessary skills and experience and hence his services were terminated during the probationary period.

This costly mistake could have been avoided. The selection process could have included some form of practical assessment. The best test would have been to actually set up a job and run it on the machine. If that was not possible, standing next to the machine and asking specific questions about its operation would have quickly confirmed the level of existing knowledge. A number of “what if” questions would have shown his depth of understanding.

When employing staff with a customer service role, it is recommend for running a quick role play during the interview. The candidate can demonstrate their customer relations skills.

Recruitment and selection success

The 80/20 rule applies to recruitment and selection, that is, 20% of the effort produces 80% of the results.

A lot of aggravation could be avoided if the effort is placed on getting recruitment and selection processes operating smoothly. It is better to avoid performance problems.

In summary, recruitment and selection success involves many critical elements, but two major ones are:

• Attracting the right number of candidates through careful targeting of the recruitment advert.
• Using a variety of methods in the selection process, including practical assessments and roleplays relevant to the position description.

The role of the Human Resource Manager is evolving with the change in competitive market environment and the realization that Human Resource Management must play a more strategic role in the success of an organization. Organizations that do not put their emphasis on attracting and retaining talents may find themselves in dire consequences, as their competitors may be outplaying them in the strategic employment of their human resources.
With the increase in competition, locally or globally, organizations must become more adaptable, resilient, agile, and customer-focused to succeed. And within this change in environment, the HR professional has to evolve to become a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or advocate, and a change mentor within the organization. In order to succeed, HR must be a business driven function with a thorough understanding of the organization’s big picture and be able to influence key decisions and policies. In general, the focus of today’s HR Manager is on strategic personnel retention and talents development. HR professionals will be coaches, counselors, mentors, and succession planners to help motivate organization’s members and their loyalty.
From an administrative perspective, the focus is now on a strategic outlook where talent HR professionals look at improving the work environment and plan out human resource needs. This article looks at major challenges that industry is facing in terms of human resources and human resource management.
• Managing Knowledge Workers :Essentially, here we are looking at different kind of people who does not obey the principles of management for the traditional group. This boils down to higher educational qualifications, taking up responsibilities at a lesser age and experience, high bargaining power due to the knowledge and skills in hand, high demand for the knowledge workers, and techno suaveness. The clear shift is seen in terms of organization career commitment to individualized career management. Managing this set of people is essential for the growth of any industry but especially the IT, BPOs and other knowledge based sectors.
• Managing Workforce Diversity :- According to Thomas (1992), dimensions of workplace diversity include, but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status, and work experience. The future success of any organizations relies on the ability to manage a diverse body of talent that can bring innovative ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge and problems faced of workplace diversity can be turned into a strategic organizational asset if an organization is able to capitalize on this melting pot of diverse talents. With the mixture of talents of diverse cultural backgrounds, genders, ages and lifestyles, an organization can respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively, especially in the global arena (Cox, 1993), which must be one of the important organisational goals to be attained. More importantly, if the organizational environment does not support diversity broadly, one risks losing talent to competitors.
This is especially true for multinational companies (MNCs) who have operations on a global scale and employ people of different countries, ethical and cultural backgrounds. Thus, a HR manager needs to be mindful and may employ a ‘Think Global, Act Local’ approach in most circumstances. In many ways, the effectiveness of workplace diversity management is dependent on the skilful balancing act of the HR manager.
• Managing Technological Challenges :In every arena organizations are getting more and more technologically oriented. Though it is not in the main run after the initial debates, preparing the work force to accept technological changes is a major challenge. We have seen sectors like banking undergoing revolutionary changes enabled by technology. It is a huge challenge to bring in IT and other technology acceptance all levels in organizations.
• Competence of HR Managers :As it is more and more accepted that lot of success of organizations depend on the human capital, this boils to recruiting the best, managing the best and retaining the best. Clearly HR managers have a role in this process. Often it is discussed about lack of competence of HR managers in understanding the business imperative. There is now a need to develop competent HR professionals who are sound in HR management practices with strong business knowledge.
• Developing Leadership :It is quite interesting to note that there is less importance given to developing leadership at the organizational level. Though leadership is discussed on basis of traits and certain qualities, at an organisational level it is more based on knowledge. The challenge is to develop individuals who have performance potential on basis of past record and knowledge based expertise in to business leaders by imparting them with the necessary “soft skills”.
• Managing Change :Business environment in India is volatile. There is boom in terms of opportunities brought forward by globalisation. However this is also leading to many interventions in terms of restructuring, turnaround, mergers, downsizing, etc. Research has clearly shown that the success of these interventions is heavily dependent on managing the people issues in the process. HR has a pivotal role to play here.

The role of the HR manager must parallel the needs of the changing organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable, resilient, quick to change directions, and customer-centered. Within this environment, the HR professional must learn how to manage effectively through planning, organizing, leading and controlling the human resource and be knowledgeable of emerging trends in training and employee development.

PERCEPTION MATTERS
( why leaders should consider managing their image — and ways to manage it.)

A Leader’s Image :Your image is the concept that others form about you as a result of the impressions you make on them. Your effectiveness as a leader is tied to your image. Your ability to project a leadership presence in the eyes of employees, customers, other important constituencies, and the general public is closely related to your ability to do your job well.
Your image, then, can be either an asset or a liability as you engage in the tasks and roles of leadership.

Many people make the mistake of assuming that paying attention to image building is superficial and therefore unimportant. However, leaders can benefit from knowing how they come across to others and making improvements if necessary.

A study of 150 senior executives who attended the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership at the Peak program shows that the image leaders convey has a significant correlation to perceptions of their leadership skill. In this study, leaders who conveyed a strong vision were rated higher on several important factors than those who conveyed a weaker vision — factors such as the ability to lead change, being dynamic, competence in strategic planning, being farsighted, inspiring commitment, being original, and having a strong executive image.

Each of these factors is tied to specific behaviors and can therefore be improved through awareness and practice.

Image is commonly thought of as being based on various external aspects of a person, such as physical appearance or formal status. Your image is affected by these elements, but it is also affected by any impression you make on others. Your personality, behavior, body language and speaking style all contribute to your image.

Your image may be the conduit through which people initially know you; it can have a great impact on how they get to know you as a person and as a leader. Whether someone is getting to know you through a first meeting, over time, or even through the media, your image is being broadcast and your reputation is being formed.

In the short term, image is important because you have only a few minutes to interact before others draw conclusions about you. In the long term, your image is tied to your credibility and effectiveness. In particular, people value consistency in what you say, what you do and how you appear.

Fortunately, you can have a great deal of control over the image others have of you. Laura Morgan Roberts of Harvard Business School puts it this way: “People manage impressions through their nonverbal behavior (appearance, demeanor), verbal cues (vocal pitch, tone, and rate of speech, grammar and diction, disclosures) and demonstrative acts (citizenship, job performance).”

Crafting your image requires you first to gain a clear picture of the image people are currently perceiving, then to decide what image you would like to portray, and finally to develop the skills to close the gap.

Why Manage Image? :- Why should leaders focus on understanding and managing their image? Here are several reasons:

You already have an image. The question is whether it’s the image you want and need to have to be an effective leader.

People form opinions of others all the time. By being mindful of your current image and taking a proactive approach to improve where necessary, you can close the gap between the way others perceive you and your desired image.This is particularly important in today’s large, geographically dispersed organizations where employees may spend little time with senior managers and, therefore, see them only in limited contexts.

People will make assumptions about you. :-In the absence of solid information and frequent communication, people often make assumptions. And what they invent is likely to be a distortion of the truth. Your image as a leader runs the same risk. In the absence of credible information and personal insight about contacts with you, people may reach erroneous conclusions about who you are, what your values are, what kind of leader you are and how well you are doing in your job.

Your image speaks louder than you do. You may spend a lot of time creating and polishing what you have to say — preparing documents and presentations, crafting your message. But all that information is interpreted in the context of who you are — more precisely, who people think you are.
How you say something has a great impact on what people hear you say. Your message is carried strongly by intonation, body language and demeanor. Your words, actions and manner need to be congruent; otherwise you will be doubted.

People seek personal connections. Image is interpreted through the lens of personal preference. Your image is often greatly influenced by your personal connections with others, or their being able to identify with you in some personal way.

People have high expectations. We want leaders to be likeable, personable, regular people; at the same time we want them to be above reproach, better than average and demonstrative of our high standards. In the days of YouTube and MySpace, camera and video phones, and instant communication, a leader’s image can be tanked or tarnished with one misstep or incongruous action. Impressions can be hard to live down.

Long careers demand investment. You invest in your career in many ways: education and training, experience, networking, and goal setting. Don’t let a negative or poor image limit or sabotage your leadership potential. Just as you pay attention to developing the technical expertise and interpersonal skills needed to be successful in your job, you should develop your image in a way that serves you as a leader.

Your image affects the performance of the people around you, especially your direct reports.
If you come across as a person who is productive, optimistic, thorough and fair, these characteristics will be seen as desirable among your direct reports. The reverse is also true. Scheming and sloppiness can also be transmitted.

(This excerpt from Building an Authentic Leadership Image was written by Corey Criswell and David Campbell of the Center for Creative Leadership: )

Ignite Innovation

We’re usually not as lucky as Newton. Most of us sit around waiting for an idea to hit us when we’re stuck on a difficult problem. But in reality, a really good idea usually doesn’t occur that way at all. People tend to wait for inspiration to come along and light the path towards a solution.
On top of this demand, the pace of today’s workplace puts added pressures on us to perform and produce impressive results quickly. We can no longer wait for the inspiration we need to find answers. We must learn to ignite our own innovation.
Many firms are finally waking up to the importance of innovation as a key factor for their future success. Though innovation has classically associated new products, a number of Fortune 50 firms have implemented corporate-wide initiatives that view innovation as going far beyond products and into all of the processes and activities through which economic value is created.
In this view, something is innovation if it is “new” for you, even if it is not new for someone else. For example, one division’s adoption of a new process or solution from a sister division would qualify. Innovation then becomes the day-in, day-out attempt to improve performance not only by doing new things, but also by consistently attempting to do existing things better - by doing them differently in an intelligent way.

Igniting innovation in your organisation :Does your organisation have an open-door policy for open-mindedness? How are fledging ideas fostered? How are creative risk takers rewarded? If your organisation or team isn’t currently utilising its own creative potential how can you ignite innovation?
Just as constant creative practice is necessary for individuals to become higher quality thinkers, a working environment that supports and encourages innovation every day is necessary for realising your organisation’s creative potential. Here are several ideas you can use to begin.

Brain Bulletin Board:Create a bulletin board in an area where people tend to congregate. Ask each person to add their thoughts to the bulletin board. These could be anything from interesting articles they’ve read and clips about what the competition is doing to photos from a recent trip they took and favorite quotes they’ve gathered. The result will not only be a public forum for self-expression, it will be a catalyst for conversation and new ideas.
Real Life Example:Electronic Bulletin Board - Whirlpool built an IT intranet infrastructure called Innovation E-Space, which directs employee innovation through the following processes:
• Random insights are systematically generated and shared to spark ideas.
• The home page links prospective innovators to useful tools and resources, from insight libraries and innovation templates to I-Mentors.
• Managers convene cross-sections of employees for formal innovation sessions. Led by an I-Mentor, the teams reflect on customer needs, industry trends, and their own experiences to create insights.
• The I-Pipe provides a dashboard view of the innovation pipeline. It tracks ideas from concept to scale-up and provides project details as well as the big picture, enabling management to focus on areas in need of attention.

Invite Innovators:Invite alternative thinkers into your organisation to help incite a creative riot. These people are sometimes those who choose not to conform to society’s norm, but they can also be people “not like you”, individuals who can shake your group free from group think and challenge people to look at life from a different perspective. They can help uncover dormant ideas, opinions, and desires and by doing so agitate innovation.

Reward creative risk:Success is often reached after many unsuccessful attempts. As a result, many people elect to give up early in the process. Both creativity and innovation take time. Reward and praise those who make change happen. Promote those who challenge the established norm and take creative risks. They will help you and your organisation to chart a bright new pathway to the future.
Real Life Example:Failure tolerant leadership - Former Monsanto CEO, Richard Shapiro, sought to change the perception that failure was unacceptable, knowing that it hindered the creative thinking that helped fuel the business. Shapiro explained to his employees that every product and project was an experiment, which can fail only if it was a halfhearted, careless effort with poor results. However, a deliberate and well thought out effort that did not succeed was excusable and even desirable.

A day for creative play:Set aside a time for focused fun. Allow individuals to explore new areas of interest, connect with each other and test theories. So much of discovery is linked to the spirit of fun. If people enjoy what they are doing they are more likely to commit their entire selves to their work. Only when people are utilising their entire human portfolio of abilities can they begin to reach their creative potential.
Real Life Example:Creativity sessions and networks - DuPont holds creativity sessions that target specific challenges within the organisation and maintains the Oz Creative Thinking Network, which involves a group of employees trained in “creative thinking techniques,” who assist DuPont employees in finding creative solutions to difficult problems.
Remember, the path toward creative expression requires both patience and practice. Believe in yourself and the creativity of others. Learn how to ignite innovation in yourself and your organisation and you’ll soon be able to harness the power of creative potential to make it work for you.
Bottom Line Example:Shell Oil established an internal venture fund, called “Game Changer.” It actively solicits business ideas from employees. Employees submit ideas to a dedicated panel group. The panel group then provides funding to approved ideas through a stage-gated approach that continually tracks and reviews the idea. In 1999 alone, four out of five of Shell’s major new business initiatives originated through “Game Changer.”

Source: Great Lakes HR Now

Research demonstrates that  that there is no substitute for objectively observing and systematically measuring how people actually perform “on the ground”. A well designed Assessment Centre is the most effective tool available for assessing individuals in both individual and group based environments for selection or development.

From the most basic unassigned role exercises to highly complex assigned role problem solving and decision making exercises for senior  managers/directors, we apply psychometric rigour to every centre we provide to ensure it is highly accurate, stable and job relevant.

There is no such thing a ’standard’ Assessment or Development Centre - some can last as little as half a day, while others can go on for three days or more. However, all demand considerable commitment from the host organisation.  

What is an Assessment/Development Centre?

The term assessment centre does not refer to a physical place, instead it describes an approach. Traditionally an assessment centre consisted of a suite of exercises designed to assess a set of personal characteristics, it was seen as a rather formal process where the individuals being assessed had the results fed back to them in the context of a simple yes/no selection decision. However, recently we have seen a definite shift in thinking away from this traditional view of an assessment centre to one which stresses the developmental aspect of assessment. A consequence of this is that today it is very rare to come across an assessment centre which does not have at least some developmental aspect to it, increasingly assessment centres are stressing a collaborative approach which involves the individual actively participating in the process rather than being a passive recipient of it. In some cases we can even find assessment centres that are so developmental in their approach that most of the assessment work done is carried out by the participants themselves and the major function of the centre is to provide the participants with feedback that is as much developmental as judgmental in nature.

Assessment centres typically involve the participants completing a range of exercises which simulate the activities carried out in the target job. Various combinations of these exercises and sometimes other assessment methods like psychometric testing and interviews are used to assess particular competencies in individuals. The theory behind this is that if one wishes to predict future job performance then the best way of doing this is to get the individual to carry out a set of tasks which accurately sample those required in the job and are as similar to them as possible. The particular competencies used will depend upon the target job but one will often find competencies such as relating to people; resistance to stress; planning and organising; motivation; adaptability and flexibility; problem solving; leadership; communication; decision making and initiative. There are numerous possible competencies and the ones which are relevant to a particular job are determined through job analysis.

The fact that a set of exercises is used demonstrates one crucial characteristic of an assessment centre - namely that it is behaviour that is being observed and measured. This represents a significant departure from many traditional selection approaches which rely on the observer or selector attempting to infer personal characteristics from behaviour based upon subjective judgement and usually precious little evidence. This approach is rendered unfair and inaccurate by the subjective whims and biases of the selector and in many cases produces a selection decision based on a freewheeling social interaction after which a decision was made as whether the individual’s ‘face fit’ with the organisation.

A History of Assessment Centres

The use of Assessment Centres in The UK

We can trace the existence of assessment centres back to 1942 when they were used by War Office Selection Boards (Anstey, 1989). Their introduction stemmed from the fact that the existing system was resulting in a large proportion of those officers it had predicted would be successful being ‘returned to unit’ as unsuitable. This is hardly surprising when one considers that the system as it was relied on interviewing to select officers and had as selection criteria things like social and educational background. Even the criteria of ‘achievement in the ranks’ which one might imagine as being more job relevant included things like ‘exceptional smartness’. No wonder unsuitable people were chosen as officers and potentially excellent officers overlooked. The assessment centre approach subsequently adopted was an attempt to accurately elicit the types of behaviour that an officer was required to display in order to be successful in their job. The tasks included leaderless group exercises, selection tests and individual interviews by a senior officer, junior officer and psychiatrist respectively. This new system resulted in a substantial drop in the proportion of officers being ‘returned to unit’ as unfit for duty. During the post war years this system was so successful that it was introduced for selection to the Civil Service and a variation of it is still used for officer selection in the armed forces to this day.

The use of Assessment Centres in The US

In the United States assessment centres were initially used by the Office of Strategic Studies to select spies during the Second World War. Subsequently the use of assessment centres was taken up by the private sector especially the giant American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) which began using assessment centres for management selection in 1956 as well as Standard Oil Ohio, IBM, Sears and General Electric. There were differences between the US and UK approaches which largely stemmed from the original background to their introduction. In the UK a greater emphasis was placed on group exercises with an appointed leader, group discussions and long written exercises whereas in the US more emphasis was placed on in-tray exercises, leaderless group exercises with assigned roles and two person role plays (Woodruffe, 1993).

The use of Assessment Centres in Industry

Modern assessment centres in the UK tend now to follow the American format although there are still some which have their roots in the public sector Civil Service model. The growth of the use of assessment centres in the UK has been rapid. In 1986 Robertson and Makin reported that slightly more than one quarter of organisations who employed 500 people or more used assessment centres, in 1989 Mabey reported that more than one third of companies employing over 1000 people used them while most recently Boyle et al (1993) reported that 45% of organisations who responded used assessment centres and that their use was more prevalent in the private sector and by larger organisations. We have also seen a rise in the use of what we could term ‘pure’ development centres. The main reasons behind this have been the realisation that centres that have an element of selection decision making to them can have a demoralising effect on those individuals who have been deemed unsuccessful. Organisations have also come to realise that to be competitive they must constantly invest in the development of their staff in order to enable them to respond effectively to an increasingly uncertain marketplace. This has meant that rather than selecting new employees organisations are now investing more in their existing workforce. Traditionally companies who wished to train their staff would send them on a training course external to the organisation, indeed many still do, but there has been an increasing emphasis placed on delivering training that is relevant to the organisation’s needs and business objectives. A development centre run as part of an integrated training strategy is an excellent way of ensuring that training is carried out in a context of organisational relevance. A final reason for the growth in use of development centres has been the widespread adoption of the idea of behavioural competencies in the human resource field, because development centres are designed around the job simulation format which requires the participant to actively do something they are a naturally effective way of assessing competencies in individuals.

What are the Differences Between Assessment and Development Centres?

The type of centre can vary between the traditional assessment centre used purely for selection to the more modern development centre which involves self-assessment and whose primary purpose is development. One might ask the question ‘Why group assessment and development centres together if they have different purposes?’ The answer to that question is threefold. Firstly, they both involve assessment and it is only the end use of the information obtained which is different i.e. one for selection and one for development; secondly, it is impossible to draw a line between assessment and development centres because all centres, be they for assessment or development naturally lie somewhere on a continuum somewhere between the two extremes; thirdly most assessment centres involve at least some development and most development centres involve at least some assessment. This means that it is very rare to find a centre devoted to pure assessment or pure development. The issue is further confused by the political considerations one must take into account when running such a centre, it is common practice for an assessment centre with internal candidates to be referred to as a development centre because of the negative implications associated with assessment.

It is easier to think about assessment centres as being equally to do with selection and development because a degree of assessment goes on in both. Development centres grew out a liberalisation of thinking about assessment centres and it is a historical quirk that while assessment centres were once used purely for selection and have evolved to have a more developmental flavour the language used to describe them has not. Another problem with using the assessment - development dichotomy is that at the very least it causes us to infer that little or no assessment goes in development centres. While you will hear centres being called assessment or development centres remember that assessment goes on in both and so to some extent at least they are both assessment centres. The end result of this is that it is not possible to talk about assessment or development centres in any but the most general terms. It is more useful to talk about the constituent parts and general processes involved in each. In these terms we can identify a number of differences between assessment and development centres that one might typically find:

Assessment centres usually -

  have a pass/fail criteria

  are geared towards filing a job vacancy

  address an immediate organisational need

  have fewer assessors and more participants

  involve line managers as assessors

  have less emphasis placed on self-assessment

  focus on what the candidate can do now

  are geared to meet the needs of the organisation

  assign the role of judge to assessors

  place emphasis on selection with little or no developmental feedback and follow up

  give feedback at a later date

  involve the organisation having control over the information obtained

  have very little pre-centre briefing

  tend to be used with external candidates

Development centres usually -

·         do not have a pass/fail criteria

·         are geared towards developing the individual

·         address a longer term need

·         have a 1:1 ratio of assessor to participant

·         do not have line managers as assessors

·         have a greater emphasis placed on self-assessment

·         focus on potential

·         are geared to meet needs of the individual as well as the organisation

·         assign the role of facilitator to assessors

·         place emphasis on developmental feedback and follow up with little or no selection function

·         give feedback immediately

·         involve the individual having control over the information obtained

·         have a substantial pre-centre briefing

·         tend to be used with internal candidates

Personal and professional effectiveness means that performing a particular task or activity in a superior manner, better than the best benchmark currently available for that task/activity or at least, matching up with it. It may not be possible to reach that excellence level from the present level , all of a sudden. However, one can improve upon one’s effectiveness gradually from current status to the newly defined status.

We will have to follow a standard operating procedure (SOP or a process) for that.

First, we should have a desire to improve in that particular task/activity. You can take a horse to water but can not make it drink water unless the horse has desire to drink water. Same with human beings too.

Secondly, we should learn the relevant knowledge pertaining to that task. There is lot of knowledge for every task. Some one has written a 200 pages book titled “how to do a great handshake”.

And, then we should practice that task again and again. Practice makes a man (and woman) perfect. There is no short cut to practice. There is no short cut to knowledge and desire also. If we wish to excel in shaking hands with people, first we have to learn from that 200 pages book (make sure that the stuff is authentic) and keep on shaking hands with every one we meet.

Ultimately, we will score 10 on 10 in shaking hands and it will become our habit. We will internalize that skill. It can happen to anyone , automatically, in the superior most manner, effortlessly.

Excellence in any skill is all about practice

“Practice” makes a man (and a woman) perfect. Its true.

Why do you think that the soldiers and their officers in the armed forces walk smartly (as compared to large numbers of civilians)? Simply because they are given the knowledge on how to walk smartly, they learn the standard operating procedure (SOP, the process) on walking smartly. And, then, they walk every day for hours together in their daily parades/drills. They rehearse and rehearse and try to make it perfect.

So, when you have a desire to pick up any skill and become the best in it, get the required knowledge to perform that skill correctly and then, practice, practice and practice.

You do need skills of all sorts to become successful in your personal, professional, family and social life and you got to be damn good in them if you wish to excel. And who doesn’t?

So, choose a skill and perfect it.

Excellence in Competencies / Skills

We will be able to achieve the excellence in any skill or competency only if we rehearse or practice the learned skill a large number of times. Knowledge alone is no guarantee for achieving great levels in skills or competencies.

Implementation of knowledge is the name of the game.

Great Knowledge + Zero Implementation = No effectiveness, No results, No success

Some Knowledge + Some implementation = Some Effectiveness, Some Results, Some Success

Great Knowledge + Great Implementation = Great Effectiveness, Great Results, Great Success

There are 4 levels of competencies or skills:

1. Unconsciously incompetent: Ignorance (example: you are not even aware that there are some proper styles of swimming)

2. Consciously incompetent: Acceptance of incompetence and creating a desire to learn (example: you accept that you do not swim properly and you will like to learn the correct styles of swimming)

3. Consciously competent: Gaining the knowledge about the skill to be mastered and begin practicing the knowledge gained (example: gaining knowledge on how to swim using proper styles of swimming and start swimming using the right styles of swimming)

4. Unconsciously competent: Keep practicing the knowledge gained till you gain mastery in the skill (example: you have now become an expert swimmer since you have been swimming using the proper styles of swimming over number of hours and you can now give yourself 9 on 10 or even 10 on 10)

For greater success in life, we should try to reach the unconsciously competent level in the skills required by us for our professional, personal, family and social activities/tasks/projects.

Doing every verb of a dictionary needs skills
To sit (properly and decently) needs skill of sitting properly and decently. You have to learn the right way of sitting and then keep doing it that way every time you sit.

To walk (smartly) needs the skill of walking smartly. You have to learn as to how to walk smartly and then practice walking using that knowledge.

To dance (artistically) needs the skill of dancing artistically. (The professional dancers rehearse hours and hours before they are ready to perform in front of an audience or a camera).

To make love (in satisfying manner) does not happen the very first time. You got to learn its theory and then practice it and every time improve upon the way you do it in order to gain the right kind of expertise in it.

So choose the skill you need to and so, wish to develop and learn about its theory and practice it.

SOFT SKILLS & HARD SKILLS

We also need to sharpen our soft skills as well as our hard skills in order to become effective, efficient and successful in our life and our professions.

Hard skills are to do with the technical skills and soft skills are the behavioral skills. Both types of skills are required for carrying out our professional activities effectively and efficiently. They are also required to be successful in our personal, family and social life.

We should first identify as to which soft skills and hard skills we need to develop. Each person may have his or her unique requirements. Once having identified them, we will need to feel motivated about developing those skills. There is no short-cut to master the skills. We will have to acquire the right kind of knowledge about those skills and then keep on practicing.

Then, we are there to win the world.

Hard skills are technical skills. Like writing programs for computers, preparing a balance sheet, working on a particular machine for a particular process in a manufacturing workshop, acting in a television serial or a cinema film, carrying out a surgery etc. We must have proficiency in these skills in order to become a good professional in our chosen fields and to earn decent living.

We can do a still better job of our chosen professions if we also acquire proficiency in those soft skills which are required to perform our jobs better. These soft skills are behavioral in nature. For example, how do we communicate with the people, how good are we in making business presentations, how empathetic we are with the people we come across, can we work as a team member, do we manage our time well and so on. These skills make all the difference.

Mere technical skills allow us certain degree of success. We can achieve higher degree of success if we equip ourself with soft skills too.

Technical skills are obvious and people learning them find it easy to understand and follow the processes of acquiring these skills. However, one wonders as to what is there to learn in soft skills; we are already doing them. Say, communication. We have been speaking and listening from the very young age and so, one may think as to what is there to learn more and how to learn. But if we look around, we may find that some people are more effective in speaking than others. Here is the answer. The people who speak more effectively have learnt and practiced to speak effectively. They have followed and implemented certain processes and guidelines for speaking more effectively. It did hot happen to them accidentally or automatically.

Soft skills make a difference in the external and internal personalities. People who acquire soft skills of high order are more sophisticated, more cultured, more reformed and are found to be more successful in every walk of life.

Therefore, in addition to perfecting our hard skills, we should also try to perfect soft skills.

Competency Matrix , Competency mapping , Gap Analysis and competency building

The model to build up hard and soft skills/competencies and gain excellence in them, in a focused manner, is a four stage model:

1. Developing your competency matrix: By your self analysis and taking help of others (your friends, spouse, parents, brothers and sisters, professional associates, bosses etc), find out the hard and soft skills/competencies you should possess in order to be successful in your professional and family roles. Write them down.

2. Map your own competencies against the competency matrix requirements: Check out if you have those required skills/competencies and are they at the desired level of proficiencies.

3. Analyze the competency gaps: By doing steps 1 & 2, you will come to know your skill/competency gaps. Which are the skills/competencies that are totally absent in you and you should pick them up fast because they are critical to your success. Yo