Camden Consulting Group News Feed

Teamwork: Empowering Managers to Develop Talent

Sat 15 12 2007 12:00:00 AM EST

At the most successful companies, corporate leaders understand the importance of talent management, and recognize that talent management strategies can help the organization grow and reach its business goals. Their leadership teams support and reward managers and employees who successfully implement these strategies throughout the organization. Managers aren’t just held accountable for developing employees in their charge, they are empowered to do so.

Let the students teach — A new approach to the mentor relationship

Mon 07 07 2008 12:00:00 AM EDT

School is out for the summer, but that doesn't mean children stop learning. In fact, children discover a wealth of knowledge during these hazy, hot, and humid days - how to swim, ride a bike, catch a ball, or eat an ice cream cone without it melting. And they often learn these things from someone other than a teacher -a camp counselor, neighborhood kids, or their brothers and sisters.

Building Communication Skills to be a More Effective Manager

Mon 10 03 2008 12:00:00 AM EDT

Communication impacts virtually every aspect of our lives. We can link it to almost every business practice and strategy. Given the fact that we have been communicating with each other our whole lives, you would think we would have it mastered by now!

Building on Strengths Through Competency Modeling

Sat 15 03 2008 12:00:00 AM EDT

The perfect employee. The ideal team. The model workforce. Is perfection even possible in the workplace? Maybe not, but by utilizing competency modeling, companies are better able to build a workforce of employees who are an ideal fit for the organization. Competency models are touted as extraordinarily useful tools for helping businesses attract, hire and retain key employees, but many organizations still aren’t relying on them in their recruitment and development strategies.

Cultivating Stars: Developing Talent Throughout an Organization

Sat 10 11 2007 12:00:00 AM EST

We’ve all heard the doomsday forecasts about the impending labor shortage: When the baby boomers start to retire, companies may not have enough workers to sustain our nation’s economic growth. Statistics show there is reason to worry. Currently, baby boomers make up approximately one-third of our workforce. Each year, they are creeping closer to the traditional retirement age. In just a few short years the first boomers will reach 65, and in the next decade, tens of millions of baby boomers are poised to retire.

Assessing Employee Satisfaction

Thu 15 11 2007 12:00:00 AM EST

If the quality of an organization is reflective of the quality of its people, it follows that organizations compete for customers and employees. Currently, there is renewed interest in talent acquisition and retention, also known as the “talent war.” At the core of the issue is the question: How do I know what employees want, especially the ones I want to attract and retain?

Be one of the employees kept during layoffs

Tue 13 01 2009 12:00:00 AM EST

It's a tough time to be an employee at any level of an organization that is facing jobs cuts. Many workers way be wondering if their job would be in peril if the pink slips were handed out tomorrow.

However, companies may look to keep certain types of employees when forced to trim its workforce. Susan Miele, senior partner with Boston-based Camden Consulting Group, provides the following five types of employees that companies may identify to keep during a layoff.

Working with an executive coach.

Tue 31 03 2009 12:00:00 AM EDT

Adjusting to a new job is never easy, but fortunately Barbara Donnelly got some help by working with an executive coach. Donnelly, who went from being a sales representative to a sales manager at South Carolina-based Gallman Personnel, turned to Jim Della Volpe of The Staffing Coach to help her succeed in her new role.

Having never been in a management position before, Donnelly had to learn many new things. But thanks to working with Della Volpe, the transition to her new position went much more smoothly and was less difficult than if she had tried to do it on her own.

Read More

Top Priorities in 2009: Develop Existing Talent, Reinforce Company Culture

Mon 27 04 2009 12:00:00 AM EDT

In a veritable sea of layoffs and other workforce turbulence, a new study from Camden Consulting Group reports some 81 percent of talent managers surveyed said in 2009 they would focus on developing talent and 76 percent said they would work on retaining talent, while nearly half of respondents cited building or maintaining organizational culture and values as a key priority this year.

"Employers today are going to be doing more with less, so they need to make sure they're developing and retaining people so they can emerge stronger," explained Susan Miele, a senior partner at Camden Consulting Group and head of the talent management practice.

Read More

Issues of Global Leadership

Fri 22 05 2009 12:00:00 AM EDT

Recently the executive coaching business has been seeing a rash of interest-bordering-on-concern about surviving in the global marketplace. It’s not that globalization is anything new, (remember Marco Polo?); it is just that with the increasing pace and pressure of doing business today, the dynamics are shifting. Globalization affects nearly every member of the business community, whether indirectly through their supply chain, or directly in their off-shore operations, call centers and after-market service centers. Learning to thrive in the global market becomes more challenging each day for leaders of these organizations, and it often falls to those of us in the coaching and consulting world to assist our clients in finding their way.

Leaders of globalized companies need to understand three important points to overcome the challenges of borderless business. First, local culture and economic conditions within the borders of other countries are distinctly different from the US, as anyone who manages sites in India, Latin America and the Far East can attest. Secondly, leadership is culturally defined and therefore a leader’s work style must accommodate that culture. Lastly, the globe itself is a rather large place, making it impossible to be everywhere all the time, so leading and managing virtually presents a rather daunting challenge as well. Let’s look at each of these in some detail..

Read More

Leading and Managing: "What's the difference?"

Fri 22 05 2009 12:00:00 AM EDT

As executive coaches, clients often ask us, “What’s the difference between leading and managing?” Why the confusion? Part of it comes from the fact that people often use the terms interchangeably. For example, one might refer to the leadership of a company or the top management of a firm. In this context, there is no harm in interchanging terms. However, these terms can have vastly different meanings sometimes..

When someone says, “You need to show more leadership” or, “An effort you are managing isn’t headed in the right direction,” he or she is getting at the difference between leading and managing. It is in those circumstances that we need to know the difference; not in formal titles or broad statements about the leadership and management of an organization.

Read More

Building a Better Business: Implementing a Top Talent Strategy to Achieve Success

Mon 14 12 2009 12:00:00 AM EST

For decades, human resources professionals have been fighting for a spot at the C-Suite table, and recently more are being invited. Savvy leadership teams have finally begun to realize that the importance of the human resources role lies not just in benefits, administration and payroll, but also in managing the company’s most valuable assets: its people.

Of course, now that HR executives have a seat, they need to prove their worth. One way to do this is by developing and implementing top talent strategies which go beyond the traditional talent management programs. Top talent strategies create a foundation for acquiring, developing, deploying, and retaining top-performers within a company to give the organization a competitive edge. This approach also ensures that the company has the right mix of people to guarantee organizational success.

So why should you take the time to implement a top talent strategy? For starters it can provide greater business operations intelligence by addressing such questions as: How can our people work best for us? What tools and training do they need to be successful? How can we track top-talent turnover? Where are our next leaders coming from? Do we have the bench strength to lead the company into the future? How can we identify and cultivate our stars?

Yet, even the most comprehensive top talent framework will not be effective unless it is aligned with the organization’s overall business goals. Integrating the top-talent strategy with the company’s business strategy allows for clearly defined and articulated goals, the development of specific actions required to achieve those goals, and a means to measure the success of the efforts.

As the economy continues to falter, talent management is emerging as a critical issue. Because of the recession, many organizations have undergone major changes, such as lay-offs, office closings, department foldings, or mergers and acquisitions. Organizations may be leaner, with fewer employees, which makes it even more critical to have the right mix of talent in the remaining staff.

Here are some reasons why HR executives should devote their time and resources to a top talent strategy:

Talent directly correlates to value—It is an uncomplicated theory: Top-performers are simply worth more to the organization. Yet, identifying and cultivating that talent can be complicated because as the complexity of the job increases, so does the variance in performance. Out of 1,000 financial analysts, neurosurgeons, or engineers, only a handful can be the best and brightest in their field. Company leaders want to make sure that they are securing and nurturing talent from this small pool of “stars,” instead of wasting resources on those that are just average at their jobs. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, seems to understand this philosophy, evidenced by his statement, “A great programmer is worth a hundred good ones.”

Mismanagement of talent leads to loss of money—The costs associated with recruiting and retaining talent is straightforward because the funds that support these programs can be easily tracked and recorded. However, the cost of losing talent, making a poor hiring decision, or not having a viable succession plan in place can be more nebulous. Assessing the financial burden of losing key people is difficult, and the impact on a company can be felt immediately through loss of productivity. The cost for operating without a key player is estimated at a minimum of $7,000 per day, according to Dr. John Sullivan’s 2005 findings. For companies that make the wrong hire, 40% of these “bad fit” hires are expected to fail within the first year according to business strategist and author, Ram Charan. Furthermore, a Harvard Business School study found that a poor hiring decision can cost a company as much as two or three times that person’s annual salary. Hiring the wrong person can also impact the company in less tangible ways. For instance, it could diminish the efficiency and morale of a workgroup, team, or whole department, thereby disrupting working relationships with clients or vendors. It can also lead to a lack of trust in the organization as a whole, eliciting sentiments such as, “Why would they hire this person?”

Lack of Bench Strength Creates an Organizational Risk—Companies are unable to grow and succeed if they don’t have the talent in place to lead them into the future. Yet, an overwhelming number of American businesses aren’t prepared to meet their organization’s talent needs. In fact according to Charan, 70% of organizations say that they have an insufficient pipeline of talent for critical jobs. He also found that the numbers are equally disappointing for leadership roles, where 67% of companies do not have the people in place to prime for leadership positions.

Developing talent from within is the best option—If possible, it makes good financial sense to cultivate existing talent into the next generation of leaders—those who have been identified as key players in the company. This stands to reason since current employees are already ensconced in the organization and understand the company’s culture, values, and goals. There is also an inherent risk in hiring from the outside that the hire won’t be a good fit. In fact, a study by The Human Capital Institute found that failure rates for “imported” as opposed to “grown” talent are two to three times higher and that developing talent from within can cost as much as 1/50^th less than hiring new talent.

Awareness and accountability is increasing—This is an opportune time for human resources executives to implement a top talent strategy. More C-level executives are beginning to understand that properly managing their talent needs is crucial to their organization’s success. They are motivated to consider talent as a vital business issue because their board members, shareholders, and investors are demanding it. In approximately half of all companies, talent strategies are a board-level issue, according to The Human Capital Institute. Investors are also concerned about talent management and succession planning and want to see more tangible evidence that something is being done to prepare for the future.

If a top talent strategy is the correct approach, what makes this type of program successful?

The 70/20/10 Framework

The way to develop a successful top talent framework is to base it on a proven leadership development strategy: the 70/20/10 Framework. This approach is founded on the theory that to become an effective leader, we need to learn “on the job.” Consequently 70% of the strategy relies on action-learning or on- the-job learning, 20% on coaching and connections, and 10% on training programs.

Workplace learning drivers—The most effective way to learn is to be immersed in the organization, the job, and it’s challenges, which is why 70% of the framework is dedicated to workplace learning drivers. Action-learning is emerging as a major factor in leadership development programs. It is successful because the learning is actually based on work, not an abstract theory described in a text book. Some of these drivers include stretch assignments, changing jobs or job rotation, transfer and travel, cross-functional task forces, and the “see one, do one, lead one, teach one” approach, where the employee can see how it is done, try it, lead a team on the issue, and then teach it to another. This strategy allows employees to solve urgent, “real” problems, build workable teams and strengthen the leadership skills that are most essential to the organization.

Coaching and connections—Of course, not everything can be learned on the job. Some skills are acquired through coaching and building relationships. The coaching component, which accounts for 20% of the framework, consists of mentoring programs, competency and skill development, 360⁰ feedback, and social networking. The social networking piece doesn’t mean helping employees become proficient on Myspace and Facebook, but rather it aids in facilitating relationships that can help them become well-rounded, skilled, and accomplished leaders. The employee learns how to locate centers of expertise within the organization and connect with the right people across the company, which enables faster collaboration and results. By fostering relationships within the organization, leaders learn to depend on each other, build teams to solve problems, and achieve results cohesively.

Training Programs—The remaining 10% of the program draws upon traditional training courses and self-development programs. These initiatives should be tailored to meet the specific needs of the employee in order to help build the desired skill sets.

So whether you have reached the C-level suite yet or not, this is an exciting time for human resources executives. Never has there been so much evidence that talent management programs are the key to businesses success, and never have leadership teams been more motivated to institute these programs to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. HR professionals have the unique opportunity to prove their value to leadership by creating a top talent framework that allows people to thrive in a way that is consistent with the goals, values, and culture of the organization. By aligning the HR strategies with the business strategy, HR initiatives can help the organization achieve its goals and have a tremendous impact on the bottom line.

What’s an effective way to boost employee morale without spending money?

Fri 05 02 2010 12:00:00 AM EST

Give them a “psychological raise.” Many people forget — if they ever knew —

what a difference their performance makes. Take 10 minutes to recognize them

and explain how their work adds to the bottom line helps the team or affects

customer satisfaction.

—Norman Gauthier, Heritage Hill Partners

Consider in-house professional development. When staff feels they are gaining

skills that make them more effective and more knowledgeable in the long run,

they feel their company is investing in them. Cross-training, mentoring and

stretch assignments that are meaningful are great ways to boost morale.

— Susan Miele, Camden Consulting Group

Strong leadership and clear communication. The cost of employing these two

initiatives is near zero, yet the value added to your company and your employees

can be tremendous, especially in challenging times.

— Bill Gately, The Rockland Group Inc.

Four Tips for Effective Leadership

Mon 08 02 2010 12:00:00 AM EST

As companies continue to try to chart a course for 2010, there’s no question that sound leadership will be one of the key ingredients for success.

“As economies change and accelerate, it becomes more and more important to be more effective in our leadership,” said Kris Girrell, a senior partner with Camden Consulting Group. However, leading in this new business environment requires a specific set of skills that may or may not be immediately apparent to today’s executives. It’s up to chief learning officers to provide effective leadership coaching. Girrell said there are four key behaviors that should be encouraged.

1. Live comfortably in the gray area. “One of the key critical skills of senior leaders is the ability to deal with uncertainty,” Girrell said. “When you talk about top management, they’re really looking out into the fog. It’s all ambiguous, and it’s literally almost making it up day by day, trying to figure out what changes in the economy and changes in the wind and changes in the pleasures of the customer base are going to be. “I think the second part of the answer is that we’ve gotten very technologically good in business, in our society; kids have more horsepower at their fingertips than most people ever imagined 15, 20, 30 years ago,” he continued. “We have all this technology that can take care of the details of things and get the information, but what’s not embedded in the technology is the ability to think, to have critical thought and analyze and extrapolate from the data. It becomes even more important because the acceleration that’s provided by all the technical tools really requires a lot more skill on the top end from our executives on how to use [it].”

2. Be counterintuitive. “What’s logical to the executive, or what’s logical to any of us, as the next thing to do comes from how we already do stuff. So it’s more of the same,” Girrell explained. “Doing more of the same only gets you more of the same results. A good coach really thinks and asks questions that push you beyond your known level into the unknown, and that’s kind of an iffy territory. That’s where coaching starts. They’re outside of the box of thinking.”

3. Learn by doing — and trust others to do so, too. “What an executive often [experiences] is, ‘I don’t have anybody I can delegate this to; nobody really has the skill set that is required.’ Well, in actuality, so many upper‐level skills can only be developed by being in the position that requires that upper‐level skill,” Girrell said. “We forget that what develops us is hardship. If you look back on the real formative events of your life, the things that made you [great], it wasn’t sitting on the beach sipping a mai tai. It was being in the cauldron. It was really being under fire and having to deal with some high‐pressure situations. You’ve got to be comfortable with uncomfortable — and pushing a person to that level of discomfort.”

Ultimately, honing these four skills will help executives develop into effective, passionate leaders. After all, as Girrell put it, “We’re going through a particularly turbulent time, and it’s just vitally important that we have some leaders with integrity and effectiveness at the helm.”

Four Tips for Effective Leadership

Mon 01 02 2010 12:00:00 AM EST

As companies continue to try to chart a course for 2010, there’s no question that sound leadership will be one of the key ingredients for success.

4. Exercise soft skills. “Much of what we do is in the realm not of skills, [but] in the realm of personality or spirituality or ethics. The only way to develop ethics is in these terrible dilemmas where you have to make a ruling, and there isn’t a right or a wrong to the answer. The really hard skills don’t have a right and wrong way to do them.” Ultimately, honing these four skills will help executives develop into effective, passionate leaders. After all, as Girrell put it, “We’re going through a particularly turbulent time, and it’s just vitally important that we have some leaders with integrity and effectiveness at the helm.”

Companies should consider using social networking to their advantage

Wed 03 03 2010 12:00:00 AM EST

Much has been reported about the risks associated with social networking: liability in the form of discrimination or harassment suits, decreased productivity, and privacy infringement, just to name a few. In fact, according to Susan Miele, senior partner at Camden Consulting Group, the greatest risk to employers of employees’ social networking include:

-Employees spend too much time on social networking sites during work hours, resulting in decreased productivity and focus.

-Employees post confidential or proprietary information about the Company on their social networking site.

-Employees give recommendations or other commentary about coworkers, in violation of the Company’s reference policy.

-Employees make negative, disrespectful or potentially harassing statements about colleagues or the Company on these sites.

-Employees make statements on their personal sites that could be attributed to the Company.

-Employees claim that their privacy or other legal rights were violated as a result of the Company’s improperly accessing private sites, and/or taking action against the employees based on allegedly private postings.

But what about using social networking for the good of the organization? “With a properly-drafted policy, and with lawful periodic monitoring, employers can reduce many of these risks,” said Miele. Many organizations are beginning to realize that use of social networking sites, such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace can work to their advantage.

“Twitter, Facebook and the like give CEO’s and senior leaders the power to communicate instantly and with great regularity and consistency to large, globally diverse teams, including employees, contractors, and vendors,” said Miele. “This helps foster open communication, clarity of direction and goals and direct connection between individual team members and the leaders of the business.”

Drafting a social networking policy. Miele provided the following 10 tips to assist a company when drafting their social networking policy:

No interference with work activities—consider monitoring software. Let employees know that their social networking activities outside of work may be viewed by Company management, and taken into account in assessing the employee’s performance, loyalty, etc.

Publication of information on social networking sites must comply with all company policies regarding ethics, privacy, and the protection of confidential and proprietary information.

-Employees may not share Company or client secrets on social networking sites.

-Employees may not make references to Company clients, customers, or partners, without permission. On personal blogs, the employee should make clear that the views are the author’s, not the Company’s.

-Employees may not put Company logos and trademarks on personal social networking sites.

-Employees must be respectful of Company, coworkers, competitors, and colleagues, as their online activities, whether during our outside of work, reflect upon the company.

-Employees must respect copyright laws—cite sources.

-Employees should be transparent—don’t hide behind phony identities.

Trouble is never far away; why a policy is more important than ever.

It is imperative that employers develop and establish social networking policies. “An employer that fails to establish clear, lawful and consistent policies with regard to social networking can easily run into legal trouble,” said Miele, who provided the following examples of social networking scenarios that result in legal trouble:

A manager makes a crude comment about his subordinate on his social networking site, which is available to “friends” only. The employee hears about it, and sues both him and the company for sexual harassment.

A company sues a competitor for stealing the company’s trade secrets. The competitor claims that the information in question is not truly a trade secret because, unbeknownst to the company, it was posted on an employee’s social networking site.

As a result of the employee’s actions, the company loses both the information and the lawsuit.

A company hears through the grapevine that two employees are saying negative things about their manager on a social networking site. A manager pressures a subordinate for her username and password to the site, gains access to the site and then fires the employees who are the site’s creators. The fired employees sue under federal and state wiretap and breach of privacy laws.

A high-level manager gives his former colleague a recommendation on LinkedIn, even though company policy prohibits references. Another former employee who was denied a reference claims that she is being treated differently, and sues for discrimination and defamation.

“Employers facing these sorts of scenarios are not without defenses and remedies; however, their position is almost always stronger if they have a clear, consistent and uniformly-enforced social networking policy that specifically addresses issues like harassment, confidential/proprietary information, references, and company monitoring,” Miele explained.

Is it safer to just prohibit social networking altogether? Although the dangers of social networking could rear their ugly heads at any given moment, the answer isn’t to just prohibit the practice altogether. In this case, the benefits often outweigh the risks.

“Social networking has been found in some cases to increase productivity, particularly on teams that are in geographically disparate locations,” said Miele. “Furthermore, social networks can be a company’s most powerful marketing and lead generation tool and they are free to use. Management who struggle with staff members who, for example, waste time on social networks are bound to find that those issues will remain whether the employees have access to the social networking sites or not.”

Web 2.0 Leading the Brave New World

Wed 07 04 2010 12:00:00 AM EDT

10 steps for leading Web 2.0 initiatives and getting buy-in from your
workers.

Most leadership models are built on the management techniques of the latter half of the 20th century. If we are being benevolent, that statement might be true, but there still are managers and systems
that harken back to overlording pre-Industrial Revolution techniques.

Today, the leadership industry hears and sees a subtler, quieter and more disruptive revolution happening. It is borne on the wings of social media and its prophets are the youngest among us. It may just re-invent our entire concept of leading and what we, as leadership coaches, assist our clients in doing.

Leadership involves a multitude of disciplines and practice areas. Not merely a set of goal-oriented behaviors as it was once classified, but leadership also encompasses a set of processes and relationships
between the leader and follower(s). It is here that the naissance of this new revolution can be seen.

Managers have generally tended to view employees as individuals and working groups or perhaps teams of individuals. It was as if the individual employee—occupying a defined space and time—were all that mattered. But increasingly, that individual has become much more. If leading is to remain the dynamic of leveraging talent, information and resources against a set of problems, processes and
products, then shifting our understanding of the “individual” is imperative.

Let’s examine the changes in two parts: what the new world looks like and what implications it poses for leaders. Web 2.0, wikispaces, social and professional networks, microblogs, RSS and advanced
search engines (the list is growing daily) have reshaped how information is shared. In the workplace, information sharing used to belong in the realm of management. It was often seen as the source of
their strength and power. There was a time when managers were seen as the best at their craft in the room—hired for their expertise and promoted into leadership for excellence and achievement.
That is no longer the case.

A very good example of this phenomenon can be seen in the world of academia. Until recently, the professor was unquestionably the most knowledgeable one in the room. But now every student has a laptop open to one of several search tools to question, challenge and push the level of informed discussion to heights that are hard to imagine and even more difficult to describe. Why, then, should the workplace be any different? What these new employees represent is no longer an individual entity, but rather an entire system—sometimes distinct from but often comprised of and accessed through the thinking and collaboration of their fellow members. Recognizing employees as windows into these vast networks of people and information sources, allows leaders to leverage far more than ever.

Yet the bulk of coaching and leadership models continue to treat employees as singular units or as members of the internal teams within the confines of the corporate entity. Leaders and leadership
models must not only recognize the different dynamic of our new employees, but must learn how to tap into the power and capacity they represent.

Person or an Access Portal?
However, beyond the employee, the network itself has become a living, breathing organism. Something happens at a certain critical mass where the web takes on a life of its own. Many corporate leaders fear this organism spreading out of control. They fear that they may lose control of the growth and spread of their brand identity or their ability to manage their “subordinates.” But these viral systems, like all ecosystems, are somewhat fragile organic organisms that must live and grow on their own.

Instead of thinking of how they can expedite growth and development—and mess with the nature of their growing social media systems—corporate leaders need to let go, and let their internal workplace community thrive independently, and then look for ways that they can then join in as a contributing member of that whole, living organism. Letting go is not simply stepping aside. In order for social media to thrive, systems need to be in place for employees to communicate, and collaborate. That translates to
providing the resources (such as smart phones, netbooks, laptops and other hardware) to enable their capacity to collaborate. It also means encouraging the “multitasking” to occur freely and spontaneously.

Leadership coaches often describe the components of employee engagement as having employees who are aligned and motivated and who have the capacity to contribute. Providing space and resourcing these social media systems so that they can spring up and thrive does exactly that.

By collaborating with their peers and other colleagues, employees become more aligned; by having a say in the direction and the ebb and flow of information sharing, employees are naturally more
motivated; and by providing the systems, tools and permission for social media, employees have a greatly increased capacity to contribute. Perhaps the more difficult task is one’s involvement as
the leader and manager. How might the leader have to change in order to lead from empowerment and people-engagement instead of from command and control? What does leadership look like when done
from below?

Here are 10 suggestions to help leaders in this new social media world:

1. Get social. If you haven’t already, get a smartphone, get on FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn, start tweeting, blogging and IM-ing. Learn about wikispaces and web 3.0 (yeah, that’s already happening). Though the most popular social media tools are really intuitive to use and have a short
learning curve, don’t be fooled: shifting a corporate culture into using them takes quite a bit of time an effort, according to consultant Grady McGonagill, whose recent whitepaper details the best practices in leadership.

2. Shift your paradigms about how work happens, about what relationships are and about the many parallel universes of relationships there are. Equally as important: shift your paradigms about what leadership is as well. Leadership must become fast, fluid and flexible enough to be passed from
one to the other around the network. Imagine, for example, stopping at midpoint in a public presentation for a tweet break to allow the audience to check in with others for their thoughts and questions.

3. Shift the direction of information flow from top-down to bottomup. In the wired world of the iGeneration, leaders don’t direct—they serve. This is not pure “hive mentality”—the random and spontaneous generation of thought movement. Leaders must provide a focus, a question or a goal and then allow for the on-going flow of information.

4. Resource it. Get the tools, find out what is most needed and wanted and get it in the budget. The important thing is getting the right tools—too many tools can not only clog the system but result in failure to use them at all. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking of just devices. Resources include setting
up the human infrastructure as well, says Naava Frank, rresident of Knowledge Communities.

5. Eliminate walls and barriers to free flowing information. Granted, companies have confidential trade secrets, but if companies can figure out how to keep them under wraps while including customers in the ideation process, they can figure out how to open up the channels without giving away the store. The key is building mutual trust. Branding is different in wikispace: once you open the doors, all the company warts are visible.

6. Participate at some (any) level. Listen in and sit down with your newest and youngest employees and ask them how they suggest using these resources. But most importantly, decide how you want to “show up” and be strategic about when to step in.

7. Turn it over to “them.” That’s right—put them in charge, let go, and turn to figuring out what recognition and reward systems the company can employ to encourage and promote it. However, this does not mean that you let go of leading the process—even Wikipedia has an organization and a leader at its helm.

8. Find new ways to engage the rank and file employees in the process of informing, information flow and information capture. Find out what the motivators are in this new realm (they are changing). It should not be the leader’s nor the organization’s goal to engage or harness the entire social network (that is too big and far too time-consuming), just the part that is helpful in advancing.

9. Don’t get tunnel vision on just information. The networked employee is more than an information conduit; she is a bundle of relationships, conversations and ideas yet to happen. The best advice is “Handle with care,” says Frank, “these systems are fragile.”

10. Set it on the path of building exponential growth. A leader’s job is keeping the vision alive and out in front. Create the position of community manager to make certain that your networking employees have purpose and focus. And then you can start to measure your organization’s results in terms of operational performance, speed and capacity.

Welcome to the digital world of the web-powered iGeneration. It is a culture that is self-empowered and has no sense of boundaries, and that actually expects and demands free access to all information and sources.

For your organization it can be a Brave New World, or Lord of the Flies. Much of that depends on how one leads. Leading a web-based, socially-networked organization requires not only self-confidence, but
an ability to facilitate instead of force, and co-create instead of simply controlling things that happen.

Yes, welcome to this braver newer world! One wonders if Lao Tzu could have imagined this when he wrote some 2300 years ago, “The greatest leader is the one of whom the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’”

Priorities, Priorities, Priorities: The Time is Now

Sun 01 08 2010 12:00:00 AM EDT

We all know it is important to focus on our priorities. We hear all the time: “Spend your time on the
important things, spend time on your highest-impact activities, and work smarter not harder.” We know
this, but it is becoming ever more difficult to accomplish. Why? More importantly, what can you do about it? Well, let’s look at what is happening in the workplace. Smartphones are everywhere, and if you carry one,immediate responses are expected. Daily demands are exerting pressure on what we need to do next. On top of that, let’s admit it, it sure is easier to reply to the latest email than write a report, make a sales plan,or have a difficult conversation.

There is some good news and bad news here. The good news is there is something you can do to get
your focus back on your priorities. The bad news is that there is no magic bullet. It is a bit like working out.

If you want the positive effects of working out, you need to do it. If you want the positive effects from making progress on your priorities, you need to identify them, put a plan in place, and work on them. Making progress on your priorities does take work and discipline. However, working on and achieving your priorities is worth it.

To get your efforts focused on your priorities, there are five areas in which you need to take action:
• Know what your priorities are. It might sound funny, but many of us have simply lost focus on what ourpriorities should be. If you can’t quickly answer what they are, you need to do a little work. Put your priorities in writing. Nothing helps like writing them down and sorting them out. Right away, it builds a little commitment for you. This is also a good spot to talk with your stakeholders and key people around you. In particular, sync with your boss on the priorities. It is surprising how often this step goes undone.
• Allocate your time. Given your priorities, you need to determine how much effort you should be putting into them. If you have no targets, it is easy to miss them. You need to figure out your rough time allocation.

For example, if you have different roles, determine a time split between them. Don’t go overboard with
specifying the split. Just use some simple percentages to the nearest five. This is not meant to be an hourby-hour assignment of time. Answer the question, “How much time should I be putting into X, Y, and Z?” This will become a guide for you.

• Work on them. With your priorities in hand (literally, because you wrote them down), begin working on them. One of the simplest ways is for you to make sure that your priorities or parts of them are on your todo list. Another is to create time slots to work on them. An excellent way to do this is through weekly planning. Block out a week or two in your calendar. Then, make appointments to work on the priorities. If something else comes up that does need your attention, reschedule the priority appointment. Don’t remove the appointment—reschedule it. A third technique to make progress on a priority is to break it down it down into manageable to-dos. Use the SOS method—small observable steps. Sometimes, people get stuck and are not able to start on a particular priority because it is too big. So, lay out some good small steps. For example, if you need to write a presentation on a given topic, create the file, make an outline,talk with a peer about the key insights, work the draft, and so forth.
• Align your efforts. The fourth action area has to do with aligning your efforts. Every so often, you should compare where you actually spend your time with your desired allocation. In essence, check your efforts against your priorities. Over time, by practicing these five areas, you should start to see an alignment. If not, look at what is going on and make adjustments.
• Refresh your priorities. Periodically, refresh your priorities. Once a month is a good time frame to recheck them. There are also natural times that occur within organizations: planning times, every quarter, before reviews. The key is to refresh your priorities regularly so you are spending time on the most importantactivities.By using these five action areas, you can refocus your efforts on your priorities. Start today by listing out your priorities. Take action now. Make it a priority!

Five Strategies to Align Leadership Development Efforts to Business Strategy

Sat 28 08 2010 12:00:00 AM EDT

In today’s business environment, it is critical that your leadership development (LD) efforts are aligned to your business strategy. By doing so, your LD efforts will have a greater impact on the business.

The critical first step in aligning your LD efforts to your business strategy is to understand that strategy. It might sound funny, but this important step gets missed often. To get a real understanding, you need ti be able to describe it in depth and in terms of decisions. A good test or two of understanding would be to list at least five decisions your organization has made that define the strategy or be able to describe how you business strategy is different from a competitors’.

With a firm understanding of your business strategy, the next step is to look at the different parts of your LD efforts and adjust them to bring them into better alignment with the business strategy.

Here are five strategies that will increase the alignment between your LD efforts and the business strategy.

1. Tailor Personal and 360°Assessments to the Business Strategy
The first place to start with is the assessments you use in any LD program, as these are the front end of leadership development work. For example, modify your 360° assessment so more of it is directed to the strategy. At a minimum, as it might be too costly to change your competency model, you can have the analysis of the 360° highlight certain strategically related items. Another choice is to select personal style assessments that tie directly to elements of a business strategy. For instance, maybe “change” is an important implication of your business strategy. Identify parts of existing assessments that can be emphasized and related to change, or, identify and use a particular assessment that focuses directly on change.

2. Select Development Goals Related to the Business Strategy
Another good area for increasing alignment is to have people’s development plans incorporate goals that align to the strategy. When people identify goals, have them describe on their plan how the goal ties back to the business strategy. This activity gets people thinking about how goals relate to the business and why they should tackle a particular development goal.

You could take this even further by having a common goal specifically related to your business strategy. Each person’s development plan would have this common goal.

3. Tie Training to the Business Strategy
In general, you have a choice of training topics and the design of the training. Based on your understanding of the business strategy, pick training topics specifically related to it. For example, have any training open with a review of the business strategy and explicitly say how this training ties back to the business strategy. Have a senior leader kick off the training. He or she can describe exactly how the training relates to the current business strategy. At the end of the training, have participants identify their personal takeaways and how they relate to the business strategy.

4. Select Action Learning Projects Directly Related to the Business Strategy
Many organizations use Action Learning as part of their LD efforts. These can be successful as places where participants can practice their development goals. The key decision is selecting the projects. Select those that best fit and push forward the business strategy. Work with your business leaders to identify these.

You can imagine a senior leader kicking off an Action Learning session describing how the chosen projects directly tie to the strategy. That would be a powerful alignment instance.

5. Create a Hybrid LD Strategy
The prior four strategies are independent. But they can be strung together. Depending on your particular situation, you may be able to combine all four strategies and take action in each area, or, maybe you can tackle two of them together. The key point is to look at each of your decisions in the above strategies and choose an overall combination that maximizes alignment to the business strategy and is doable.

Align LD to Strategy

Wed 01 09 2010 12:00:00 AM EDT

Today your Leadership Development (LD) efforts need to align with your business strategy. Your LD efforts will then have a greater impact on the business.

The critical first step in aligning your LD efforts to strategy is to understand the strategy thoroughly.

Get at the characteristics that define it; describe it in depth and in terms of decisions. List five decisions your organization has made that define the strategy or describe how your business strategy is different from a competitor’s. Once you have a good description of the strategy, you can better align your LD efforts to it, because you know where and how to make alignment choices.

The next step is to look at the different parts of your LD efforts and the decisions you can make to each one.

By adjusting your LD efforts, you can bring them into better alignment with the business strategy.

Here are five strategies that will increase the alignment between your LD efforts and the business strategy. The key question to ask is “How can we bring our LD efforts into better alignment with the business strategy?”

1. Tailor personal and 360-degree assessments to the business strategy.

The assessments you use in your LD program are the front end of LD work. For example, modify your 360 assessment so more of it is directed to the strategy. Since it might be too costly to change your competency model, you can have the analysis of the 360 highlight certain strategically related items. Or select personal style assessments that tie directly to elements of a business strategy. For instance, maybe “change” is a key implication of your business strategy. Identify parts of assessments that can be emphasized and related to change. Or, identify and use a particular assessment that focuses directly on change.

2. Select development goals related to the business strategy.

People’s development plans should incorporate goals that align to the strategy. When people identify goals, have them describe on their plan how the goal ties to the business strategy. This activity gets people thinking about how goals relate to the business and why they should tackle a development goal. You might have a common goal related to your business strategy. The development plan of each person in the LD program would have this common goal.

3. Tie training to the business strategy.

You have a choice of training topics and the design of the training. So, pick topics that relate to strategy. Design the training based on the business strategy. For example, open any training with a review of the business strategy and vision: explicitly say how this training ties to the business strategy. Have a senior leader kick off the training. He or she can describe exactly how the training relates to the current strategy. After the training, have participants identify their personal takeaways and how they relate to the business strategy.

4. Select action learning projects directly related to the business strategy.

Use action learning as part of your LD efforts. Select projects that best fit and advance the business strategy. Work with your business leaders to identify the best projects. You can imagine a senior leader kicking off an action learning session describing how the chosen projects directly tie to the strategy. That would be a powerful alignment instance.

5. Create a hybrid LD strategy.

Since the first four strategies are independent, you can string them together. Depending on your situation, you might combine all four strategies and take action in each area. Or, you might just tackle two of them. Look at each of your decisions in the above strategies and—depending on your budget, the state of the organization, and the appetite for change—choose a combination that maximizes alignment to the business strategy (and is doable). From the above strategies, you have many choices that will increase alignment of your LD efforts to your business strategy. Many of the choices are low cost. By going through each part of your LD efforts, you can make decisions and modifications that will create an LD program much more aligned with your business strategy.

Mike Noble on Communicating Change Effectively

Wed 09 03 2011 12:00:00 AM EST

When it comes to change, communication is crucial. According to Mike Noble, Employees must not only be made aware of the coming changes but also why they are being made and what the budget and timeframe are. Otherwise employees will be resistant, no change will ever take place, and the organization will fall behind competitors.

Click here to play the podcast.

Are You Coachable?

Wed 09 03 2011 12:00:00 AM EST

Are you coachable? It’s a simple question and not a bad one for a new year.

Have you ever noticed that top-tier professional athletes have a coach? And I don’t necessarily mean the one stalking the sidelines in a game, though they are every bit a coach. I’m talking about the ones dedicated to players like pro quarterbacks.

These athletes are at the top of their respective games. In particular, consider Tom Brady or Peyton Manning (put your fandom aside). These are two future hall-of-fame quarterbacks. Yet they have quarterback coaches. They regularly analyze what they do, get feedback, and adjust.

When I say regularly, it is weekly. It is a natural, expected thing. They practice and practice. We expect that they will listen and adjust. Otherwise, they just will not succeed at the highest levels (not to mention that defenses adjust quickly now, making the job more difficult). Remember, these are two gifted athletes, yet they grow and make adjustments.

Why is it that this practice does not necessarily translate to the working world? Our strengths are often what get us to where we are today. We became consistently better at a specific set of capabilities. We even become known for it. For many people, though, that strength can get in the way; it can become overdone. People reach a level where something else is required, and they can’t meet the challenge. This stagnation has left many people lingering in the same role for years. That’s because, as Marshall Goldsmith’s latest books states: What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There.

Are you open?
In executive coaching, we often see this situation—strengths getting in the way as much as weakness. People tend to think about fixing the weaknesses without acknowledging (or, in some cases, even noticing) that the strengths are in fact the primary issue. We tend to build up an immense confidence around these strengths, and in that lies the paradox. Our strengths and confidence got us here, but they are what will keep us in the same position for years if we don’t continue to evolve.

The ability to change and grow is taking on more and more importance today. The pace of change is faster in almost every industry, and the complexity of work is greater. Organizations are flatter, especially in decisionmaking.

If you are a top executive, this matter extends beyond your personal success. You are setting the tone for an organization. If you show an ability to grow and change, it sends a powerful message and, frankly, a straightforward example that others will follow. Simply stated, the ability to adjust and grow remains a critical success factor, even at the executive level.

So, what does it take to be coachable? There are several important areas to consider.

Fundamentally, being coachable begins with being open to feedback and ideas about what you are doing. Notice a key distinction, I am asking whether or not you are open to ideas and feedback about what you are doing, not merely whether you are open to ideas. Ideas can be about anyone or anything; it’s a different ball game when the feedback and input are about you.

Next, do you get feedback in consistent manner? When was the last time you received feedback in a systematic way? If it has been a while, it is probably time to ask for some.

Which brings me to my next point: you should solicit feedback. If you are not seeking feedback, you will never get the objective input you need to make the changes that will get you where you want to be.

Being open and getting feedback are a good start, but that’s just half of it. Are you willing to change? When was the last time you made a significant professional development change? If it was more than six months ago, you should consider making another one now. It takes you making a change to actually grow.

Finally, once you have made a change, you need to sustain it. This requires the same commitment, dedication, and reinforcement you make when you go on a diet or vow to get it shape. To sustain a change, you have to commit to the new approach or behavior for more than a month.

Style is no excuse
As with anything thing else, there are pitfalls to managing personal growth and change. One of the biggest is “It’s my style.” If you catch yourself saying that in the next month, remind yourself that this is nothing more than an excuse. Don’t use style as an excuse for not changing.

Another common pitfall is being defensive. If you find yourself explaining away just about every piece of feedback you receive, you are likely not being as open as you need to be. We all have an Achilles’ heel that can make being coachable a challenge. Figure out yours, and attend to it.

What can you do right now? 2011 is here, and it is the perfect time to continue your new plan of action. Look at what you are doing and how you are going about things. Ask some straightforward questions: How can you improve? What do you need for the next level, whether your goal is a promotion or reaching the next level of performance?

It shouldn’t be too hard to settle on a goal or two. Pick an easy goal and a stretch one. Get some feedback about it. Then write up some simple steps you can take toward the goal. In essence, this is your professional development plan (or, at least, a basic one).

Next, work it into your weekly routine. Find the spots to work it in. Then talk with a trusted advisor on how you are doing. Let them know what you are working on, ask for their specific feedback, and then practice it. Taking these steps puts you on the path of being coachable.

Bob Hewes, PhD, is a senior partner at Camden Consulting Group (www.camdenconsulting.com), where he designs and delivers executive coaching and leadership development services for clients.

Why Alignment Is Essential to Effective Performance and Profitability

Thu 31 03 2011 12:00:00 AM EDT

Take the best workers in any field. What do they do that makes them so successful? They understand what it takes to execute effectively, and then they do it. When a product is delivered on time, the putt drops in the hole, the system boots up without a hitch, or the curtain drops on a brilliant performance?we marvel at how easy it looks. The reality is that effective execution is anything but easy. Behind the scenes is a means for delivering results that is both dynamic and pragmatic.

Alignment: The Bridge Between Strategy and Execution

The key to profitable performance is largely dependent on the extent to which four business elements are aligned:
-The leadership?responsible for developing and deploying the strategy and monitoring results

-The organization?the structure, processes, and operations by which the strategy is deployed

-The jobs?the necessary roles and responsibilities

-The people?the experience, skills, and competencies needed to execute the strategy

Adaptability and Perspective Are Essential

What is essential for success in the ?high performance organization? is an understanding of the interdependencies and the ability to adapt quickly and strategically to change. When these four elements are in sync (i.e., aligned?when it all looks so ?easy??the likelihood for outstanding performance is increased.

A hallmark of an organization that aligns well is the ability to adapt and realign when there is a change. For example, a new technology introduction could change a business process. A change in the process could change job responsibilities and skill requirements. Therefore, the leadership must realign the organization not only at a process level, but at both job, people and skill levels as well.

Take the economic downturn in the past 24 months. Some organizations hunkered down, choosing to cut all nonessential spending as a way to at least maintain a current profitability. Others, however, have used this time to reevaluate the way in which they do business to increase their overall efficiencies, and improve both performance and profitability. Take, for example, a civil engineering firm closely tied to the home construction business. Rather than slashing their professional staff with the loss of revenue, leadership engaged the workforce in lean initiatives to reduce waste, customer-focused activities to improve the relationships, and new business opportunities to increase their visibility. These three initiatives when coupled have potential impact on both top and bottom line results. In essence, this organization aligned the four elements to the economic situation.

Many organizations, however, fall victim to some common alignment-performance pitfalls, particularly in periods of high stress or rapid change.

Major Alignment-Performance Pitfalls

1. Developing the strategy and throwing it over the wall for implementation. There is too often a tendency to think that once the strategy is developed the only requirement for implementation is one of communication. Implementation is the ?real work??the continuous alignment and monitoring of the four key business elements.

2. Heads-down focus. Performance at an individual level is based on executing a series of critical tasks. However, without the bigger picture?a more strategic perspective?it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand how what you do impacts other elements in the system. A heads-down perspective also limits the extent to which an individual will offer to improve a process since there is little appreciation beyond ?just doing my job.?

3. Blaming the hired help. It is easy to blame people for poor execution. After all, they are the ones doing the work. Sometimes there are clear situations in which an individual is not a fit for the job or in which individuals need more training and development to be effective. However, what about situations when you have dedicated, hardworking people working with inefficient, bloated, or cumbersome processes? This is a process problem, not a people problem. Or, what is the root cause when three individuals are responsible for the same task or balls are dropped because it is not clear who is responsible for what? This is a job definition issue, not a people issue.

4. Perpetuating the silo perspective. All too often leadership teams at both functional and business levels tend to represent their own interests as opposed to those of the larger organization. In high performance organizations, the role of the leadership team is clearly defined along with clear accountability for overall execution and profitability, not just each person?s piece.

5. Micromanagement. When the spotlight is on improving performance, too many managers move in to ?tell? how. Perhaps these managers? hearts are in the right place? they want to make sure that things are done correctly?but their tendency is to direct as opposed to engage others. This is a great way to (a) encourage people to withhold effort or take the slightest risk to solve problems or improve performance on their own and (b) build resentment among the staff, particularly the best and brightest who will flee when they find a ?better? opportunity.

6. Ill-defined roles and responsibilities. The lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities is often a major obstacle to profitable performance. This is particularly true when there are major organizational changes. Letting people figure this out for themselves can be counter-productive and is too important to leave to chance.

Recommendations

Want to improve profitable performance? Here are some things to consider:

-Communicate and engage. Alignment is the bridge between strategy and execution, and communication is the mechanism by which alignment takes place. Communicate about the strategy. Communicate about changes and their potential impact on the elements of the organization. Engage employees in a discussion of their responsibilities, critical tasks, and priorities. When there are changes, engage employees in a dialogue. You cannot over-communicate in these situations.
-Sharpen the organization?s capability to listen, observe, learn, and act. Seek input and recommendations from everyone in terms of what they see with customers, processes, and inefficiencies. Think of this as the equivalent for what professional teams do when it comes to watching the films of their last game. They chart a course of action and execute it.
-Look up and out as well as down. A strategic perspective is critical to improving performance and impacting profitability. Encourage people to think ?how? and ?why? as well as ?what? when it comes to performance.
By staying away from the pitfalls and focusing on these recommendations, an organization can increase its alignment and therefore its performance and ultimately its profitability

About the Author(s)
Dr. Robert P. Hewes and Dr. Alan M. Patterson are both with Camden Consulting Group. Hewes is a senior partner with Camden Consulting Group, with oversight for leadership development and management training. A skilled strategist, facilitator, and coach, he designs and delivers executive coaching and leadership development services for Camden clients. Patterson is an executive coach and consultant with Camden Consulting Group. He has extensive experience in engineering and delivering talent management initiatives in areas like change management, leadership development, and executive coaching services to senior executives in a wide range of industries. A published author, Patterson brings over 24 years of international consulting experience to his executive coaching engagements, and has been a featured speaker and workshop leader for several national associations.

Perilous Leadership

Fri 01 04 2011 12:00:00 AM EDT

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future”

- John F. Kennedy 1963

The pace of change in the domains of technology, science, business and commerce was just starting to accelerate in the early 1960’s when JFK made this observation. Fast forward almost 50 years and we can observe that the pace of change has expanded exponentially since those relatively stable days of the early sixties. It seems that everything about business is changing at a furious pace and, if a company doesn’t have the leadership in place to keep up with and ahead of the change, both the leaders themselves and their companies are at risk of becoming road kill on the highway of commerce.

Just look at the iconic American companies that didn’t adapt quickly enough to changes in technologies or the markets and consequently suffered shrinking market share or, in many cases, extinction. Companies like General Motors, Kodak, Bethlehem Steel, Polaroid, Digital Equipment – and the list goes on.

CEOs and the leaders of companies have two ultimate responsibilities. First, they must envision what their company needs do today and tomorrow in order to ensure that they will be better and stronger in the future. And, second, they have to personally embrace the changes that will be necessary and lead everyone else down the path to the new reality. This means demanding improvements to what is working well and being willing to abandon the things that don’t work. Sometimes, it means being prepared to take the company in an entirely different direction, if that’s what it takes to compete and win in the changing marketplace. Changing what is already being done, especially if it has been successful in the past, may actually prove more difficult than leading a company into entirely new waters. When people, processes, structures, and attitudes are firmly entrenched in the status quo they are extremely difficult to dislodge and refocus, even if everyone recognizes the need for change.

Getting people to recognize the need for change is only the first task. Actually leading the organization through the change is a more daunting task. It is usually fraught with conflict and risk. Machiavelli said it best in The Prince, “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Unless a leader is willing to take on this perilous challenge, he puts himself and his company at great risk of failure. This is a critical attribute in business leaders and one that should be given the highest priority in the selection and development of CEOs. I would also submit that this is a key attribute of boards of directors because they are ultimately responsible for selecting their companies’ leaders and holding them accountable for taking on the challenges of change. I offer an example of a situation where both the CEO and the Board fell short of embracing and driving the change that their company needed.

The Consequences of Failing to Embrace and Drive Change:

Several years ago, one of our client companies, a small publicly traded consumer products company, was looking for a replacement for its retiring CEO. The company had a record of steady growth and successful financial performance, albeit with a limited product set and narrow distribution channels. It was clear to many on the Board of Directors that some significant changes would have to be applied to the company’s core business diversification strategies. They wanted a CEO who both understood the existing business and possessed the ability to make the changes required. One of the Directors expressed it best we he said, “We don’t want incremental actions; we want a clear vision to the future and bold steps to get us there.”

The number one candidate to fill the job was an internal long-term executive who had been groomed for the position. However, even though he had been very successful in his prior roles at the company and knew the nuts and bolts of the business better than any of the other CEO candidates, there was some hesitation among the Board members as to whether or not he had the essential leadership attributes to step into the top job and drive the changes that were needed.

Action by The Board

The Board ultimately made the decision to promote the internal candidate. He quickly demonstrated that he was competent enough to squeeze all the waste and inefficiencies out of the existing business and to maintain strong financial controls and performance in the short term. But he consistently came up short when it came to driving changes in the product line, the distribution channels or the overall culture of innovation that would lead to the bold action the Board wanted to see in their CEO. Despite the urging and coaching from the Board and others, the new CEO seemed to be frozen in place and afraid and unwilling to take the risks that might be associated with any significant deviation from the strategies that had worked in the past.

The company limped along for a couple years but the new CEO never really articulated a clear vision for change. In the end, he was not the change leader the Board was looking for after all and he was replaced just before the recession began. Because he was so focused on past and present performance, he was not able to make the changes to lead the company into the future. Consequently, when the economic downturn hit, the company was not in a position to weather the storm and, for the first time in many years, it suffered a significant decline in its business and bottom line losses.

Questions to Ask After The Fact

The post mortem analysis begs a number of questions. Did the CEO just not have it in his constitution to be a change leader? Did he think he could avoid or postpone the inevitable changes that would be required? Was there insufficient encouragement or inducement to force him into action? Did the Board make a mistake in their selection of the CEO? Did they take the “safe” route in selecting the person with whom they were comfortable rather than someone they were confident could drive the changes that were needed to truly prepare the company for the future? I suppose there is a little bit of yes in the answers to each of these questions but it is clear that both the CEO and the company ultimately paid the price for not having the ability or the willingness to drive in time to avoid the consequences of the economic downturn.

As Peter Drucker pointed out in his book, Management Challenges for the 21^st Century, “Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes – it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable.” Clearly, postponing change is not a formula for success. In fact, the opposite is what we need to look for in our leaders – the willingness to “take on the new order of things.”

Mike Noble, Managing Partner, Camden Consulting Group

Mike Noble is Managing Partner at Camden where he oversees all of the firm’s strategic business development activities and client engagements. To learn more visit www.camdenconsulting.com.

Alignment Is Essential to Effective Performance, Profitability

Thu 21 07 2011 12:00:00 AM EDT

Take the best workers in any field. What do they do that makes them so successful? They understand what it takes to execute effectively, and then they do it.

When a product is delivered on time, the putt drops in the hole, the system boots up without a hitch, or the curtain drops on a brilliant performance, we marvel at how easy it looks. The reality is that effective execution is anything but easy. Behind the scenes is a means for delivering results that is both dynamic and pragmatic.

Alignment: Bridge Between Strategy, Execution

The key to profitable performance is largely dependent on the extent to which four business elements are aligned:

The leadership—responsible for developing and deploying the strategy and monitoring results.

The organization—the structure, processes and operations by which the strategy is deployed.

The jobs—the necessary roles and responsibilities.

The people—the experience, skills and competencies needed to execute the strategy.

Adaptability and Perspective

An understanding of the interdependencies of these business elements and the ability to adapt quickly and strategically to change are essential for success in the high-performance organization. When these four elements are in sync—when it all looks so easy—the likelihood for outstanding performance is increased.

A hallmark of an organization that aligns well is the ability to adapt and realign when there is a change. For example, a technology introduction could change a business process. A change in the process could change job responsibilities and skill requirements. The leadership must realign the organization not only at a process level but also at job, people and skill levels as well.

Take the economic downturn. Some organizations hunkered down, choosing to cut all nonessential spending as a way to maintain at least their level of profitability. Others have used this time to re-evaluate the way in which they do business to increase their overall efficiencies and improve performance and profitability.

Take, for example, a civil engineering firm tied closely to the home construction business. Rather than slashing their professional staff with the loss of revenue, leadership engaged the workforce in lean initiatives to reduce waste, customer-focused activities to improve the relationships, and business opportunities to increase their visibility. These initiatives have potential impact on top- and bottom-line results. In essence, this organization aligned the four elements to the economic situation.

Major Alignment-Performance Pitfalls

Many organizations fall victim to alignment-performance pitfalls, particularly in periods of high stress or rapid change. Among them:

Developing the strategy and throwing it over the wall for implementation. Too often there is a tendency to think that once the strategy is developed, the only requirement for implementation is one of communication. Implementation is the real work—the continuous alignment and monitoring of the four key business elements.

Heads-down focus. Performance at an individual level is based on executing a series of critical tasks. However, without the bigger picture—a more strategic perspective—it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand how what you do impacts other elements in the system. A heads-down perspective limits the extent to which an individual will offer to improve a process because there is little appreciation beyond “just doing my job.”

Blaming the hired help. It is easy to blame people for poor execution. After all, they are the ones doing the work. Sometimes there are clear situations in which an individual is not a fit for the job or in which individuals need more training and development to be effective. However, what about situations where you have dedicated, hard-working people working with inefficient, bloated or cumbersome processes? This is a process problem, not a people problem. Or, what is the root cause when three individuals are responsible for the same task or balls are dropped because it is not clear who is responsible for what? This is a job definition issue, not a people issue.

Perpetuating the silo perspective. All too often leadership teams at functional and business levels tend to represent their interests as opposed to those of the larger organization. In high-performance organizations, the role of the leadership team is defined clearly along with clear accountabilities for overall execution and profitability, not just each person’s piece.

Micromanagement. When the spotlight is on improving performance, too many managers move in to tell how. Perhaps these managers’ hearts are in the right place— they want to make sure that things are done correctly—but their tendency is to direct as opposed to engage others. This is a great way to encourage people to withhold effort or take the slightest risk to solve problems or improve performance on their own and to build resentment among the staff, particularly the best and brightest who will flee when they find a better opportunity.

Ill-defined roles, responsibilities. The lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities is often a major obstacle to profitable performance. This is particularly true when there are major organizational changes. Letting people figure this out for themselves can be counter-productive and is too important to leave to chance.

Overcoming Execution Pitfalls

Want to improve profitable performance? Here are some things to consider:

Communicate and engage. Alignment is the bridge between strategy and execution. Communication is the mechanism by which alignment takes place. Communicate about the strategy. Communicate about changes and their potential impact on the elements of the organization. Engage employees in a discussion of their responsibilities, critical tasks and priorities. When there are changes, engage employees in a dialogue. You cannot over-communicate in these situations.

Sharpen the organization’s capability to listen, observe, learn and act. Seek input and recommendations from everyone in terms of what they see with customers, processes and inefficiencies. Think of this as the equivalent for what professional teams do when watching the films of their last game. They chart a course of action and execute it.

Look up and out as well as down. A strategic perspective is critical to improving performance and impacting profitability. Encourage people to think “how” and “why” as well as “what” when it comes to performance.

By staying away from the pitfalls and focusing on these recommendations, an organization can increase its alignment and, therefore, its performance and profitability.

Dr. Robert P. Hewes and Dr. Alan M. Patterson are with Camden Consulting Group. Hewes is a senior partner with oversight for leadership development and management training. Patterson is an executive coach and consultant with extensive experience in engineering and delivering talent management initiatives in areas like change management, leadership development and executive coaching services to senior executives in a wide range of industries.

Five Ways to Transform Managers into Coaches

Tue 20 09 2011 12:00:00 AM EDT

If a manager wants to be a leader, he must develop the ability to coach others. It is core skill required of every successful manager in the 21st century. The days of command and control leadership as a standard way of managing people are long gone. Coaching and collaboration have taken over as the most effective way for managers to lead. If managers do not become skilled at coaching their employees, it is unlikely that they will be able to achieve sustainable long-term positive results for themselves or their organizations.

Coaching requires both skill and time. But, before one applies either of these, managers should understand what coaching is and why it is important. In its simplest form, coaching is the act of helping others to perform better. Sometimes it is focused on helping to correct poor performance or improve existing skills. At other times, it’s targeted at developing entirely new skills. Whichever the case, it is important because good coaching by managers will accelerate the development of employees and lift their organizations to higher levels of achievement.

So, why don’t all managers coach? Most likely due to one of three major reasons: (1) they don’t understand the value or importance of coaching; (2) they don’t possess the skills to coach others; or (3) even if they understand the importance and have the skills, they don’t have the time. To overcome these barriers and transform your managers into coaches there are five things that you can do to foster change.

1. Build the personal case for coaching. You can’t force coaching responsibilities on managers who don’t see its relevance. While most managers have a strong sense of loyalty to their organization that alone may not be enough to motivate them to develop their coaching skills. There is still an element WIIFM (what’s in it for me) that must be addressed in building the case with most managers. When you point out the fact that the strongest leaders and most successful executives in their organization and/or discipline are also excellent coaches (this is almost always the case), they will be more inclined to seize the opportunity to learn how to become an effective coach. Once the managers understand that they can get more done and achieve stronger results through the efforts of others, they will want to learn how coaching, not command and control, will enable them to better leverage the talents of their employees. Whether they are just trying to do a better job for their employer or seeking to promote their own careers, managers will embrace coaching as an effective means to a mutually beneficial result.

2. Establish some firm expectations. Making it clear that coaching is a primary responsibility of each manager in your organization is an essential prerequisite to creating a coaching organization. If you don’t establish firm expectations around coaching, you are unlikely to get the results you want. Coaching should be a key element in your organization’s culture and part of every manager’s job description. Coaching requires skill and time. Enabling managers the opportunity to develop the skills and allocating the time for them to both learn and apply their skills should be incorporated into every organization’s operating model. It should be a topic of discussion at every performance management evaluation and highlighted when managers are promoted or assigned to new roles.

3. Teach coaching skills and put them to practice. Coaching does not necessarily come naturally to most managers. In fact, before they become managers, employees are generally rewarded for their individual skills and their ability to get tasks done on their own or in small teams. So, the appointment to a manager role can represent a significant and sometimes difficult shift in both what the manager does and how he allocates his time. Core coaching skills such as listening, questioning, observing, building rapport, constructive analysis and feedback, empathy, supportive encouragement and holding others accountable are all skills that can be enhanced or taught in a variety of formats. Whether it is in workshops, mentoring relationships or simply modeling those who are strong coaches, managers can improve their knowledge and understanding of coaching skills. But they need to be able to put the skills to use in real-time situations. This means allocating the time to practice these skills when coachable moments occur. If also means creating coachable moments or situations. When managers delegate tasks or responsibilities to direct reports, they create a coaching opportunities by default. Delegation is a powerful management tool and a powerful vehicle for practicing and developing one’s coaching skills.

4. Give a manager a coach. There is no more effective means for learning than through hands-on experience. Therefore, if you want to transform a manager into a coach, it’s a good idea to give them the opportunity to experience coaching first hand. Having a manager coached by another executive in your organization will accomplish two things. It will enable the manager to experience the benefits of coaching and become more committed to coaching as a method for developing others. It will also provide a model of how to provide coaching for others. If you don’t have skilled coaches within your organization, you should consider hiring third-party external coaches to work with your key managers.

5. Reward the best coaches with the best jobs. This should not be a stretch. The managers who demonstrate the strongest coaching skills are likely to be the strongest performers. As such, they should be candidates for the most important manager and executive roles in the organization. Placing these managers in the most important roles and crediting these assignments, at least in part, to their excellent coaching skills will send a strong message to the rest of the organization that coaching is a critical skill for all managers.

These are just five of the steps you can take to accelerate the transformation of managers into coaches and to turn your organization into a coaching organization. The benefits will accrue to both the individual managers in terms of their own career advancement and to the overall organization in terms of the enhanced collaboration and stronger performance. In many organizations the evidence is compelling. Many have discovered that their strongest managers are also their strongest coaches. In fact, the VP of Global Executive Development, Tanya Clemens, has stated, "We have done lots of research . . . and we have found that the leaders who have the best coaching skills have better business results." When managers become aware of these types of outcomes, they will be motivated to begin their own transformation.

About the Author:
Mike Noble is a Managing Partner at Camden Consulting Group (www.camdenconsulting.com), a consulting firm that provides focused, practical, customized and integrated human capital management, leadership development, executive coaching and training services to organizations and their employees. Noble oversees all of the firm's strategic business development activities and client engagements.

Personal Best: Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you?

Wed 16 11 2011 12:00:00 AM EST

The sort of coaching that fosters effective innovation and judgment, not merely the replication of technique, may not be so easy to cultivate. Yet modern society increasingly depends on ordinary people taking responsibility for doing extraordinary things: operating inside people?s bodies, teaching eighth graders algebraic concepts that Euclid would have struggled with, building a highway through a mountain, constructing a wireless computer network across a state, running a factory, reducing a city?s crime rate. In the absence of guidance, how many people can do such complex tasks at the level we require? With a diploma, a few will achieve sustained mastery; with a good coach, many could. We treat guidance for professionals as a luxury?you can guess what gets cut first when school-district budgets are slashed. But coaching may prove essential to the success of modern society. There was a moment in sports when employing a coach was unimaginable?and then came a time when not doing so was unimaginable. We care about results in sports, and if we care half as much about results in schools and in hospitals we may reach the same conclusion. Local health systems may need to go the way of the Albemarle school district. We could create coaching programs not only for surgeons but for other doctors, too?internists aiming to sharpen their diagnostic skills, cardiologists aiming to improve their heart-attack outcomes, and all of us who have to figure out ways to use our resources more efficiently. In the past year, I?ve thought nothing of asking my hospital to spend some hundred thousand dollars to upgrade the surgical equipment I use, in the vague hope of giving me finer precision and reducing complications. Avoiding just one major complication saves, on average, fourteen thousand dollars in medical costs?not to mention harm to a human being. So it seems worth it. But the three or four hours I?ve spent with Osteen each month have almost certainly added more to my capabilities than any of this. Talk about medical progress, and people think about technology. We await every new cancer drug as if it will be our salvation. We dream of personalized genomics, vaccines against heart disease, and the unfathomed efficiencies from information technology. I would never deny the potential value of such breakthroughs. My teen-age son was spared high-risk aortic surgery a couple of years ago by a brief stent procedure that didn?t exist when he was born. But the capabilities of doctors matter every bit as much as the technology. This is true of all professions. What ultimately makes the difference is how well people use technology. We have devoted disastrously little attention to fostering those abilities. A determined effort to introduce coaching could change this. Making sure that the benefits exceed the cost will take work, to be sure. So will finding coaches?though, with the growing pool of retirees, we may already have a ready reserve of accumulated experience and know-how. The greatest difficulty, though, may simply be a profession?s willingness to accept the idea. The prospect of coaching forces awkward questions about how we regard failure. I thought about this after another case of mine that Bob Osteen came to observe. It didn?t go so well. The patient was a woman with a large tumor in the adrenal gland atop her right kidney, and I had decided to remove it using a laparoscope. Some surgeons might have questioned this decision. When adrenal tumors get to be a certain size, they can?t be removed laparoscopically?you have to do a traditional, open operation and get your hands inside. I persisted, though, and soon had cause for regret. Working my way around this tumor with a ten-millimetre camera on the end of a foot-and-a-half-long wand was like trying to find my way around a mountain with a penlight. I continued with my folly too long, and caused bleeding in a blind spot. The team had to give her a blood transfusion while I opened her belly wide and did the traditional operation. Osteen watched, silent and blank-faced the entire time, taking notes. My cheeks burned; I was mortified. I wished I?d never asked him along. I tried to be rational about the situation?the patient did fine. But I had let Osteen see my judgment fail; I?d let him see that I may not be who I want to be. This is why it will never be easy to submit to coaching, especially for those who are well along in their career. I?m ostensibly an expert. I?d finished long ago with the days of being tested and observed. I am supposed to be past needing such things. Why should I expose myself to scrutiny and fault-finding? I have spoken to other surgeons about the idea. ?Oh, I can think of a few people who could use some coaching? has been a common reaction. Not many say, ?Man, could I use a coach!? Once, I wouldn?t have, either. Osteen and I sat together after the operation and broke the case down, weighing the decisions I?d made at various points. He focussed on what I thought went well and what I thought didn?t. He wasn?t sure what I ought to have done differently, he said. But he asked me to think harder about the anatomy of the attachments holding the tumor in. ?You seemed to have trouble keeping the tissue on tension,? he said. He was right. You can?t free a tumor unless you can lift and hold taut the tissue planes you need to dissect through. Early on, when it had become apparent that I couldn?t see the planes clearly, I could have switched to the open procedure before my poking around caused bleeding. Thinking back, however, I also realized that there was another maneuver I could have tried that might have let me hold the key attachments on tension, and maybe even freed the tumor. ?Most surgery is done in your head,? Osteen likes to say. Your performance is not determined by where you stand or where your elbow goes. It?s determined by where you decide to stand, where you decide to put your elbow. I knew that he could drive me to make smarter decisions, but that afternoon I recognized the price: exposure. For society, too, there are uncomfortable difficulties: we may not be ready to accept?or pay for?a cadre of people who identify the flaws in the professionals upon whom we rely, and yet hold in confidence what they see. Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance. Yet the allegiance of coaches is to the people they work with; their success depends on it. And the existence of a coach requires an acknowledgment that even expert practitioners have significant room for improvement. Are we ready to confront this fact when we?re in their care? ?Who?s that?? a patient asked me as she awaited anesthesia and noticed Osteen standing off to the side of the operating room, notebook in hand. I was flummoxed for a moment. He wasn?t a student or a visiting professor. Calling him ?an observer? didn?t sound quite right, either. ?He?s a colleague,? I said. ?I asked him along to observe and see if he saw things I could improve.? The patient gave me a look that was somewhere between puzzlement and alarm. ?He?s like a coach,? I finally said. She did not seem reassured.

Coaching People

Mon 06 02 2012 12:00:00 AM EST

YES, PEOPLE ARE YOUR MOST

valuable asset, and you know that you should invest in people and help them be more effective. This can be challenging. Daily demands and other priorities get in the way. What are you actually doing about it? Are you growing the capability of your people? Are you taking an interest in their development? Are you up to speed with the review cycle? Are you coaching your people?

If you are a manager, you can grow the capability of your people. Developing people is more important than ever. The ability to change and grow is taking on more and more importance. The pace of change is faster in every industry, and the complexity of work is greater. Organizations are flatter, especially in regards to decision making. Being a manager who not only achieves results but can develop people is more valuable than ever.

Before talking about specific actions you can take, I want you to consider some important differences from straight-up managing.

For a manager, results need to come first

It is your top priority to achieve the results you have for your area. To be a coaching leader, means to focus on the results and the development of people. There will be times when the results have to come first. The trick is to not let development fall completely off your agenda.

Another difference is how you approach something that needs to get done. Being a manager often requires you to direct people (this needs to be done, go get it done). Developing people requires a different approach. Instead of just focusing on the pure delegation of the job—go get it done, you can focus much more on how to get something done or what skill the job entails a person can develop. You can engage with your report about different ways to get things done (and this likely could be different from your preferred approach—so be ready for that!).

Finally, an underlying factor of a coaching leader is taking a genuine interest in the other person’s develop ment. Here you need to think like a coach. Are you willing to help others achieve new capabilities and reach higher levels of performance? Will you be able to focus on results and development? Be sure to answer yes, before taking this on.

So how to go about it?

A must do step is to be fully up to date on your organization’s review cycle. You should be doing a stellar job with performance appraisals thinking through the key skills the person needs. A coaching leader focuses equally on the development needs and evaluating performance. Take advantage of this. If it is a daunting process, think about changing your approach to it. Another important piece of background work for a coaching

leader is to be up to speed on your organization’s competency model if one exists. You should understand it fully and align your efforts to it. There is absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel!

Use This Five-Step Approach

Here is a straight-forward five-step approach a coaching leader can use and start at almost any time:

1. Identify goals jointly. With your reviews in hand, start by looking at what your people are doing and how they are going about things. Ask some straightforward questions: How can they improve? What do they need for the next level or the higher end of the current role? Do this jointly with your report. Agree on the goals. This builds commitment and shared understanding. It shouldn’t be too hard to settle on a few clear, well described professional development goals.

2. Create a written plan. Have your report create a written plan. Nothing helps focus any development efforts like having a written plan. It gives both of you something to consistently refer to. Describe the goals in enough detail so they uniquely apply to your report. Include specific action steps that the person can accomplish. Without this “tool” you’ll most likely end up having just random, unfocused discussions. Work the language of the organization’s competencies into the plan. That action helps to create a common language.

3. Implement! So far it is just a plan. The rubber meets the road in the actual growth someone experiences. The key is to help them achieve their plans through the work and assignments. Find opportunities in the work where the goals can be practiced. Once you get good at this, work becomes a target rich environment for virtually any development goal. Use delegation as a development opportunity—when you delegate a piece of work highlight the development goal it relates to. Another key implementation idea is to think “Real Time” development. As work is progressing, spot the development possibilities in it. Take a moment or two to discuss the situation. For example, if you have a direct report that is working on presentation skills, be sure to review and discuss some key presentations with them. Explain how you go about it—what you do to prepare;

how you figure out the audience; and how you handle questions.

4. Reinforce. Look for reinforcement opportunities, both positive and constructive. It is important to highlight wins along the way. This should be another real time action.

5. Step back and check-in. Have check-in meetings on a regular basis—maybe once per quarter. Make this separate from an operational meeting where you go over the needs, issues and decisions of the day. The development meeting is a “step back opportunity” to talk about how someone is progressing. Though these five parts are easy to understand, the magic and growth happens with the specifics and particulars

you do in each phase—the specific goals you identify—the way it gets written up—the clever way you help someone implement a goal. Sometimes it requires creativity, insight or simply stepping back. By working through these steps, you take a focused and forward thinking approach to being a coaching leader who develops people. Being a coaching leader can get your group to higher performance, and you can say “let me tell you a story or two about how we develop our people.”

Bob Hewes, Ph.D., is Senior Partner at Camden Consulting Group, where he designs and delivers coaching and development services. Visit www.camdenconsulting.com.

Overqualified is Good

Wed 11 01 2012 12:00:00 AM EST

Only when organizations challenge faulty thinking about the highly skilled can they begin to see their true potential competitive value.

In the current bear economy countless numbers of experienced, highly skilled workers find themselves among the ranks of the 6.2 million long-term unemployed, pitted against prevailing recruitment “wisdom” warning against hiring overqualified workers. Ironically, this group, comprising nearly half of the

U.S. jobless in September according to the U.S. Department of Labor, is actually a rich and untapped source of competitive advantage.

In a December 2010 Harvard Business Review article “The Myth of the Overqualified Worker,” Andrew O’Connell cited two studies — Talya Bauer and Berrin Erdogan’s analysis of data on more than 5,000 Americans and Greg Reilly, Anthony Nyberg and Mark Maltarich’s examination of 244 employees in a

Turkish apparel chain — demonstrating that, in addition to performing significantly better, highly skilled, “cognitively overqualified” employees have a stronger work ethic and stay longer on average if they are empowered.

Despite this evidence, “The prejudice against ‘too-good’ employees is pervasive,” O’Connell said. “Companies tend to prefer an applicant who is a ‘perfect fit’ over someone who brings more intelligence, education or experience than needed.” What is often overlooked is that job descriptions frequently list

the minimal performance requirements for a current problem set, not one that could develop as business progresses. In these terms, the best candidate should be overqualified.

Only when organizations challenge faulty thinking about the highly skilled can they begin to see their true potential competitive value. This negative bias persists due to concerns these individuals will quickly leave or become disgruntled, hiring managers’ fears that highly skilled employees could replace or outshine them and assumptions that these individuals will be too expensive.

While reasonable on the surface, such fears can be allayed by engaging this talent in high-traction, value-producing jobs. Highly skilled workers offer an advanced level of critical thinking, enabling them to cut through issues that baffle less-experienced employees. As a result, the highly skilled can offer

shortcuts, redesigns, best practices and other improvements that not only provide competitive value for their new organizations, but make them feel more valued as well.

Perhaps more important than having a fresh opportunity to apply their talents and make a name for themselves again, free choice, self-direction and autonomy — all more viable for a highly accomplished worker — are also the glue for employee engagement and retention. As for threats to hiring managers,

experts have long preached the wisdom of hiring people with greater talent than one’s own as being the best way to advance one’s own career.

Regarding cost, organizations must consider the value generated by the highly skilled. While most overqualified workers are actually willing to take a step down in salary for the chance to demonstrate their worth, their full value comes from their shorter ramp-up time, thus shorter time to create profitability. According to Fred Reichheld’s The Loyalty Effect, longer-tenured employees offer other benefits, including peer training, job efficiency, greater depth in customer service, network contacts and strategic business savvy that produces a five to 10 multiple of salary benefit, which generally does not kick in for three to five years in new hires. All of this is immediately available from the overqualified or highly skilled employee.

Despite these benefits, staffing professionals still may worry about a potential Mr. Hyde lurking inside the highly qualified Dr. Jekyll they wish to hire. The addition of two key competencies to the hiring criteria can mitigate the potential for overaggressive or bait-and-switch types in the applicant pool. Specifically, a

history of collaborative innovation — the practice of teaming with others from an awareness of the higher potential for synergy — in combination with a selfassured humility — the maturity of character that no longer needs to assert or insert one’s ego into the mix for its own gain — make the highly talented hire an eager and willing participant striving for the greater good of the company.

To identify these competencies, skilled talent managers who rely on behavioral/historical interview questions quickly will recognize examples of collaborative innovation. But recognizing the maturity that comes with selfassured humility is a bit more difficult. Interviewers should look for modesty in

expression mixed with a confidence that allows the person to respect and recognize others for their contributions.

Amy Bladen Shatto is president of Leadership Variations, a management development consultancy. Kris Girrell is senior partner of Camden Consulting Group in Boston. They can be reached at editor@talentmgt.com.