DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

The Moneyball Formula for Leadership

By Mike Hoban

So, what are the talent lessons that companies can learn from the largely true-story movie Moneyball? The entertaining and drama-filled film is up for 6 Academy awards this year including one for best picture but this is more than a story about baseball. It’s a story about finding the right – and affordable – talent.

Here’s a brief synopsis for those who have not seen it yet or read the book on which it’s based. Billy Bean is the General Manager for the Oakland Athletics in 2002 and adopts a new quantitative method (“sabremetrcis”) of scouting players, a methodology employing a little used metric of “on base percentage” as a key indicator of talent. In the movie, the algorithm was developed by a young math whiz who is subsequently hired by Bean to identify “overlooked” talent, since Oakland’s personnel budget was miniscule compared to that of the competition.

The quantitative approach is derided by most of the baseball establishment because it was counter to the traditional player performance indicators used to identify talent. It also cut across the grain of relying on talent scouts’ judgment and experience, based largely on more traditional metrics. Fast forward - Bean proves the cynics and skeptics wrong and the Athletics, with a team of low salaried players who were undervalued and in some cases cast off by other teams makes the playoffs.

There is a Wikipedia link for those of you who want more detail.

So back to the initial question – what is the “so what?” for companies regarding that talent acquisition story? Professional sports is a very different kind of industry than most, in which talent and the execution of talent is the overwhelming differentiator for win/loss success. Not technology, not market strategy, but talent. Besides, even if the metric of “on base percentage” is the holy grail of positive correlations for player (and team) success, what is the equivalent success genetic marker for those working in manufacturing or banking or healthcare? Good points both.

The lessons, therefore, are more about a concept rather than in the specific replication of the Moneyball tale. Even in sports other than baseball no one has suggested a new or creative performance metric to predict success which parallels the baseball example in the story.

So here are my takeaways:

• It’s possible to be very successful as an organization with associates and managers who lack what conventional wisdom would consider to be “Tier 1” credentials. Brand-name employment experience is a good thing, but so can be solid experience in an obscure no-name company. Ditto for education;

• It doesn’t take the biggest payroll to win. Super Bowl champion NY Giants rank #18 out of 32 NFL teams in payroll costs and the Super Bowl runner-up Patriots rank #23;

• Acquiring niche, non-superstar players who fit a system can be a formula for success. Granted, that goes against the popular principle of “top grading” but that’s the whole point of the story. Success through tried-and-true means would have made a far less compelling story;

• Sometimes finding the right talent for a role requires casting the net in unexpected or non-traditional directions as they did in Moneyball. For an important project management role, for instance, an organization might not only screen the internal data base for those having related PM experience but might also ask who has successfully orchestrated and organized a large wedding or a successful class reunion. Think about it - in both of those instances, planning and organizing skills are important as is relationship management to achieve the desired outcome;

• Accept that there is an element of risk in trying to find the uncut diamonds and be prepared to address that potential performance gap and move on. There was a higher degree of churn than usual in the Oakland club as General Manager Bean tried to assemble the right team using overlooked or under-appreciated players.

Readers – any other lessons you took from the story?

Mike Hoban is a Senior Consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI). www.ddiworld.com

 

Leadership Lessons in Holiday Pop Culture

By Mike Hoban

Christmas season film favorites are not just entertaining, some of them contain valuable leadership lessons.  So in the holiday spirit, here are some examples of well-known and mostly well beloved seasonal celluloid and their lessons.

        A Christmas Story

Leadership Lesson:  Sometimes you have to take some intelligent risks in order to reap big rewards, even if the skeptics and naysayers tell you that you might shoot your eye out.  Act upon your inner Ralphie. 

        It’s a Wonderful Life. 

Leadership Lesson #1:  You as a leader often have no idea of the unintended positive impact you have on others and unfortunately, there is usually no Clarence angel to show you.   Lesson #2:  Every time you hear a bell ring it means someone has earned his/her leadership “wings.”

        National Lampoon Christmas Vacation

Leadership Lesson:  As a leader, setting accurate expectations about the organization’s reward system can help you avoid disengaged and disgruntled employees.  An added bonus for viewing this movie is enjoying one of the very classic movie lines, as uttered by Chevy Chase’s character.  “Am I surprised?  Why Eddie, I wouldn’t be more surprised if I woke with my head sewn to the carpet.”

        Miracle on 34th Street

Leadership Lesson:  Being seriously - I mean seriously - customer focused might mean sending your customer to someone else if they have a better solution, as Kris Kringle in the movie suggested that shoppers go to his sponsoring store’s arch-competitor Gimbels. Sometimes enhancing the long-term relationship and trust is more important than making an immediate sale.      

        Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (Stop Motion Animation Classic)       

Leadership Lesson: The power of diversity gets a lot of lip service but in this low-tech classic production it’s the odd, eccentric Rudolph who brings his unique and heretofore unappreciated quality (his glowing nose) to the table and enables Santa, the leader, to accomplish his task.  Despite that valuable lesson, it is a truly awful and annoying production and leaders are urged to acquire that lesson through other means.

        How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Leadership Lesson: You as a leader can overcome significant character flaws or executive derailers through self-awareness and intentional action.  Even a negative, narcissistic reputation like the Grinch’s can be repaired through authentic and consistent positive behavior.             

        Elf

Leadership Lesson:  Embracing, advocating and acting upon your beliefs and vision can enable others to believe in and achieve a desirable outcome, even if it seems preposterous to others initially.  Plus, every leader can increase his/her credibility with younger employees by knowing there are four main food groups: candy; candy canes; candy corns and syrup.

        A Charlie Brown Christmas (Animated)

Leadership Lesson: Good grief, leading by example can be a powerful way of capturing the hearts and minds of others in times when a paradigm shift is needed. Come to think of it, this is something of a theme for all of these seasonal productions.

Anyway, a most happy holiday season to all DDI Talent Management blog readers and I hope that I and my blogger colleagues have brought you some insights and inspiration in 2011.     

Mike Hoban is a senior consultant with DDI.

The Ballad of John and Steve

By Barry Stern, Ph.D.

As I've spent the last week working and vacationing in Tokyo and Kyoto Japan and falling in love with this country, I was surprised to have John Lennon on the brain.  Not only is Yoko Ono from Tokyo, but I have been surprised by how much the peace sign is alive and well here in the Far East. It seemed that tourists posing for pictures, young and old, east and west (mostly east as observationally at least tourism has not returned to normal following what they refer to as the “Eastern Japan Great Earthquake Disaster”) broke out into a spontaneous display of a vote for peace.  Echoes of John and Yoko pleading "all we are saying is give peace a chance" have been reverberating in my mind. John was an intimate partner to me, a man I never met who sparked a love for music that today still inspires me and bonds me with my children. When “Sgt. Peppers” came out I was hypnotized.  I still am.  And I remember with abundant clarity exactly where I was when I found out of his death in Dec 1980; the grass wallpaper on my parents' den wall, the ABC-TV newscasters name (Ernie Anastos) who read the announcement; the glassy-eyed vacuous stares of the throng outside the Dakota Hotel on the TV; the lump in my throat that lasted for what felt like years.

And, as I sit here typing on my iPad, I will also remember the night in Kyoto when I found out about the death of Stephen Jobs.  Another intimate friend never talked to.  The shrines to him evocative of those to Lennon; he melded business with art through the look and feel of his innovations and the now omnipresent sound track of my travels.  Of course I knew he was a very sick man and the rattle I feel in my 50s is much less than that of the emotional youth hearing about John.  

I was not surprised to hear that Lennon and the Beatles were very much heroes to Jobs as well.  In the end perhaps both men measured themselves not by their own recognition or wealth, but by their ability to, as Jobs put it, “make a dent in the universe.”  Perhaps their greatest success was nothing less than inspiring others to greatness, to innovate in ways never dreamt.  In our recent Global Leadership Forecast which included 1900 HR Professionals and 12,500 leaders in 74 countries, we found that only 38% of leaders felt the quality of leadership was acceptable, only 25% when we asked the same question of HR professionals. Further, we found that the leaders’ ability to foster creativity and innovation was one of the 5 critical leadership skills of the future, along with managing change and identifying future talent. 

We can’t expect every leader to be the genius that Jobs or Lennon were, but they can learn to be the spark that creates the environment for greatness. For example, they can learn to inspire insatiable curiosity, make it okay to challenge perspectives, and meld those with the discipline to get things done.  And, as Jobs might have said, that would certainly be “insanely great.”

Barry Stern Ph.D. is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI). Follow him on Twitter.

Are You an Exceptional Boss? Some Things to Ponder

By Mike Hoban

October 16 is Boss’ Day.  It’s interesting – it is not a Hallmark invention like many people suspect.   Nope.  A woman named Patricia Horoski, who was an employee at State Farm Insurance in Illinois, registered the holiday with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1958.  She thought bosses should have a day of appreciation of their own.  She chose October 16 because it was her father’s birthday and she considered him to be an excellent boss. 

If you’re a manager, would your team members consider you to be an excellent boss?  How likely is it you’ll get an e-mail, an e-card a high-five or some other sort of supportive acknowledgement from those who report to you on Boss’ Day?  Maybe it won’t happen because no one wants to be considered a suck up.  Or maybe because it’s a weekend day and no one remembers .  But maybe it’s because, well, they don’t consider you to be one of those excellent bosses. 

So there could be a good reason for Boss’ Day to come and go with nary a word from your team, but it’s still worth looking in the mirror and asking yourself the following questions:

• When was the last time you said to one of your direct reports, “Thanks for _____” (fill in the blank, being specific and timely)?
• How many times in the past week have you authentically asked your direct reports “What do you think?” and then acted on the input?
• When was the last time you admitted to your direct reports that you were wrong on a business decision you made?
• When was the last time you even admitted to yourself that you were wrong on a business decision you made?
• When was the last time you publicly credited one of your direct reports for excellent work, even downplaying whatever role you might have played in the outcome?
• Do you almost always resist the urge to second guess your team member on a decision she made on an assignment you delegated to her?
• When was the last time you told your boss he/she was doing a good job and why?
• How often do you speak favorably to your direct reports about your boss when he/she is not around?
• Could two or more of your direct reports describe a time in the last 6 months when you went to bat for them on a significant issue?
• Would most of your direct reports say that they trust you as a boss and as a person because of the specific things you do (and don’t do) in leading and managing them?

Those are some of the things that excellent bosses do.  And those are the kinds of things that give direct reports a reason to remember and acknowledge Boss’ Day. Work on giving them a reason for next year.

Mike Hoban is a Senior Consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI).