DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

Wielding Power over a King

By Bradford Thomas

Months in advance my wife had circled the calendar for the date that “The King’s Speech” opened in theaters—I mean “theatres” since this is an English film. I could say it’s her desire to feel high-brow or to add culture to our lives, but in reality it is because of her infatuation with Colin Firth.

I have to say that this is an inspiring movie which should land Mr. Firth an Academy Award for his portrayal of Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI. What made it inspiring to me is the dynamic between the two main characters—King George VI and Lionel Logue, a speech therapist deftly played by Geoffrey Rush.

You see, the King has a debilitating stammer and has turned to Logue for help. Logue’s challenge is to convince a very prideful and assertive King to do some very unconventional and less than royal things—such as wobbling his cheeks back and forth and firing off a series of four-letter words. Logue is effective because he is able tailor his approach with the King. He cuts through the “King and His Subject” relationship by refusing to call him “His Majesty.” Instead, Logue calls the King by his childhood nickname “Bertie.”

In a pivotal scene, Logue casually sits on the ancestral throne at Westminster Abbey as a way to goad Bertie into speaking with a loud and angry voice. What Logue demonstrates with these tactics is a mastery of gaining commitment.

The key to gaining commitment is using interpersonal skills and persuasion to involve and convince others to take action. This is a very difficult behavior for new leaders in particular to master. In fact, DDI found that 52% of frontline leaders aren't as strong at gaining the committment of others as they need to be.

Think about how effective you are at influencing others in your personal and private lives—whether it is your friends or family, your direct reports or manager. Here are a few tips that can go a long way towards gaining commitment:

• Sell them the WIIFM (What’s in it for ME). Help them see how they would personally benefit from your idea.
• Tailor your approach. Everyone has different motivations, perspectives and hot buttons—you need to figure out what these are and adapt your interactions accordingly.
• It’s easier to row with everyone in the boat. People tend to feel ownership of decisions when they feel that they’ve been heard. If you involve everyone in the discussion from the beginning, they will be more likely to be receptive—and even an advocate for your ideas.

If an Australian speech therapist can wield the power of persuasion over a King, just imagine what you could do.

Bradford Thomas is a Product Manager at Development Dimensions International, Inc. (DDI)

Technology + Trust = More than an Antidote to the Big Snow

By Mike Hoban

A funny thing happened on the way to the recent blizzard in the Midwest – many offices were closed but a lot of work got done. Meetings were held; customer issues got resolved; information got shared; orders were placed. How? People working at home with enabling technology. But while the gizmos make telecommuting and distance management increasingly more viable and more effective, it’s the humanware rather than the hardware or software that is the key ingredient in the sauce of success.

Sure, the ubiquitous laptops with web access, smart phones, virtual networks, web cams, and on-line data bases all made it possible to avoid having to risk life and limb to get to the office while the 2011 Snowpocalypse was raging. But as regular telecommuters and distance managers have discovered, creating alternative working arrangements that actually do work also requires self-management and trust. And let’s not forget measurement and accountability. In fact, the gadget stuff is the easy part.

Technology is an enabler for home-based work, but it could also enable chaos, low productivity and an absence of accountability. Think Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Distant or virtual management arrangements by definition lack line-of-sight in a literal way and does require some application of the old principle of “trust but verify.”

Lead and managing from a distance obviously isn’t a recent development. Communicating with and managing others in far off places has been a challenge from the earliest days of far flung empire. In many cases there had to be an act of faith that the subordinate across the country or across the ocean would be performing in a way that carried out the mission of the organization. But technology helps us go beyond that act of faith.

Last week I had a call with a director in a high tech firm who’s housed in Germany and who has direct reports in another German city, as well as in Prague, Beijing and the U.S. and who almost never sees those people face-to-face. Oh, and he himself works from his home office rather than the regional office some 100 kilometers away. We discussed what he does to provide leadership and direction to those direct reports and he identified several solid practices:

• Set very clear performance expectations, business results and behaviors
• Have very solid metrics which measure performance and have those metrics easily accessible by everyone
• Have regular phone calls to review progress, challenges, etc. The director from Germany I talked with has a weekly call lasting an hour with each person
• Listen for and probe for issues and challenges that might manifest themselves through body language in a face-to-face meeting but have to be discerned through voice tone/volume and nuance on the phone. Install video cams if the technology is available to pick up those emotional signals and to also provide for a more human connection.

And of course in addition to the controls, there is the trust that is necessary to ensure the work gets done and the management support is provided. Not every boss is cut out to be a virtual boss and not every employee can be trusted to work at home or from a distance. But it does represent an attractive alternative for many organizations and employees not just as a Plan B for inclement weather, but as a Plan A.

Mike Hoban is a senior consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI). 

Innovative, Simple Solutions for a Complex World….

By Mark Dembo

…was the theme at the Conference Board’s Talent Management Strategies Conference held this week in New York.   It was a great privilege to spend two days with well over 100 talent management professionals sharing ideas, knowledge and best practices.

Having attended many events like this over the past several years one thing in particular struck me throughout the conference; for the first time in well over two years there was a remarkable upbeat and optimistic tone.  Discussions both formal and informal were about a return to growth, about accelerating development of key talent, and even – yes it’s true – about the “war for talent” being stronger than ever!

The theme of the conference certainly stuck a nerve with the challenges so many organizations were talking about. It goes something like this:

Question: “How do we get our arms around this behemoth called ‘Integrated Talent Management’? With increased globalization, a flatter and more matrixed organization structure, more demands on people’s time, differing needs for different generations and geographies and business units – how do we communicate and implement a coherent talent strategy with a cohesive set of talent tools and processes that meet the needs of all our constituents and stakeholders that allow us to make meaningful decisions about people, while keeping people engaged, and ensuring that development is focused, meaningful, and measureable?  Oh, and we also need to have all of this online in multiple languages with all these systems being able to talk to each other… And, we need to have this in place now!”  (Whoa- first, take a minute to catch your breath after reading that…)

Or, perhaps another way to ask the question: “How do you eat an elephant?”

Answer: ONE BITE AT A TIME…

See, the reality is that these are some very complex challenges – and there is no single, simple solution.  Of course, what makes the challenges of 21^st Century Talent Management so complex is that we are not dealing with widgets or machines or “things” – we are dealing with people. People who have been through the ringer the past few years and are still uncertain about what the future might hold.  So, taking all of these things into account, there were some very helpful takeaways from the Conference that emerged:

1.       More than ever – the starting point for Talent Strategy MUST be the Business Drivers! This is more than about HR having its rightful seat at the table – this is about ensuring that you are focusing efforts on the areas that will have the most impact for the business. Talent Management in a vacuum just simply won’t fly today. 

2.       The most effective talent management strategies are integrated. More than just about having “end-to-end talent management software” effective integration is about communication and education; ensuring that all stakeholders understand how one aspect of talent management is tied to another. And the most important underpinning to integrate talent processes is a cohesive set of competencies and success profiles for all key roles that are used consistently for talent selection, promotion, development, performance management, and succession planning.

3.       Need to balance global and local; in our increased global world, effective integrated talent management needs to balance global consistency with local flexibility.  

4.       The Talent Management function should be the catalyst and the steward – but the business leaders need to take ownership for effective talent development.

5.       You can’t do it all it once!  Start by articulating the business drivers and success profiles – then based on your organization’s culture, maturity, as well as opportunities and challenges -determine the best place to start. Look for the small victories that can add up over time. Look for continual improvement over time.

6.       Don’t overlook the leaders most often overlooked; the mid-level. These folks have more pressures than ever – their role is more complicated, more global, and more directly involved in execution of strategy.

7.       “Great can be the enemy of good” – don’t wait until everything is perfect; it never will be. 

Finally, an incredibly insightful comment, offered by Ray Peloso, Executive Vice President, Consumer Finance - Debt Management at RBS Citizens; “A life alerting recession is a terrible thing to waste.”    Emerging from the world of the past few years provided us with a new lens, a renewed sense of urgency, and some important lessons. Let’s not forget the lessons learned and carry those forward to continually improve our talent and our organizations.

Mark Dembo is a manager with Development Dimensions International (DDI).

How Can Coaching Drive Revenue Growth?

By Mark Dembo

Now that the dust of the “New Year” has settled into this long winter of 2011, the focus for many organizations has turned to rapid execution of strategy. As we’ve weathered the economic storms of the past few years and now with some partial clearing on the horizon, organizations are seeking to take advantage of the glimmers of economic sunshine by becoming laser focused on ensuring that goals are met as efficiently and expeditiously as possible. We’ve all learned that we can’t sit back and rest on our laurels – things can turn on a dime and we must be ready for it.

Along with this, is an increasingly sharp focus on sales performance. In fact, many companies have shifted the focus of executive compensation away from just stock price or EPS growth, supplanted with a much stronger emphasis on revenue growth.

HR and Talent Management professionals can and should be playing an important role in spurring on that sales growth by providing the resources and guidance to ensure that the RIGHT type of sales and sales leadership skills are being acquired, developed and retained.

While this may not be earth-shattering news, there are some interesting twists to consider that run contrary to traditional thinking. Effective sales leadership isn’t just about coaching and prodding salespeople.

In fact, the Sales Executive Council recently published some very interesting research that points out that sales leaders may oftentimes be focusing their coaching effort on the WRONG people. As reported by the Harvard Business Review, the tendency to focus coaching at the “tails” of the sales team is the wrong approach;

“The real payoff from good coaching lies among the middle 60% — your core performers. For this group, the best-quality coaching can improve performance up to 19%. In fact, even moderate improvement in coaching quality — simply from below to above average — can mean a six to eight percent increase in performance across 50% of your sales force….

At the end of the day, who your managers coach is just as important as how they coach.”
I leave you with three questions to ponder:

1. What are you doing to ensure that you know who your bottom, middle, and top sales performers are, and who among that group has the best potential and motivation to improve in a changing sales environment?
2. Do your sales leaders have the right information to know where to focus their efforts?
3. How are you equipping your sales leaders to improve and focus their coaching efforts on the right people?

Think about it – the future growth of your organization is riding on the answers to these questions!

Mark Dembo is a manager with Development Dimensions International (DDI).

The Relationship Between Skill Practice and Deliberate Practice

 By Victor L. Magdaraog

The skill practice component of our leadership development program, Interaction Management always fascinated me. In all my years working with DDI clients, I’ve always heard “ah-hahs” and literally seen “light bulbs” switching on after a good round of skill practice. The skill practice usually starts slow, with participants considering it a chore, or a workshop activity they just have to do, but after the first round of feedback, most realize the tremendous learning they just experienced. They realize what leadership is all about.

Leadership after all is an acquired skill and a form of expertise. One cannot develop leadership by simply reading books, sitting through a lecture, doing case analysis, or listening to a round of motivational speeches. You have to do it. You have to experience it. You have to want it. Unfortunately, there are very few opportunities to practice leadership on the job. Being a leader is not like a concert pianist who has time to practice before going on stage for the concert. When one gets promoted to a leadership role, there are usually no “practice runs”. You are online on the first day, and if you are not ready, it can be a rough transition. For those in leadership roles, we all know that becoming an excellent leader is tough and the result of hard work. If it were easy, we would all be great leaders.

So, why are there superior leaders and others are just not good enough?  The better ones invest time and energy in focused development, which has two parts.  The first part is the Interaction Management skills course itself.  It provides foundation skills necessary to be successful in a leadership task and through the skill practice opportunities offered.  A major area of the skill practice that is part of each course is to hone the target behaviour and provide the confidence necessary to try out the new behavior on the job.  The second step in the Interaction Management process deals with on-the-job skill strengthening of the behaviors taught in the Interaction Management course.  This is a major opportunity for deliberate practice

Over the past years, there has been an increase in interest on the concept of deliberate practice.  Very recently, popular author Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, and Goeff Colvin’s book, Talent is Overrated, has an entire chapter on it. Renowned executive coach Ram Charan refers to this as “deliberate leadership development.” In the book Extraordinary: Stories for Aspiring Leaders, it is referred to as “Deliberate Development Initiative.”  The thinking in deliberate practice is that expertise or superior performance is achieved through years of purposeful practice and exercise.

Dr. Anders K. Ericsson, one of the leading researchers on deliberate practice says “You need a particular kind of practice—deliberate practice—to develop expertise. When most people practice, they focus on the things they already know how to do. Deliberate practice is different. It entails considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well—or even at all.”

Since there is pressure on leaders to achieve project outcomes or resolve work issues, performance takes center stage, and on-the-job practice takes the rear seat.  In most situations, we are satisfied with what is good enough performance. We are happy to float, rather than learn how to swim well. If we are successful in these instances, we learn just enough functional competence. Ericsson cautions against a mistaken notion of that good enough achievement level will lead to superior performance. In some cases, being satisfied with everyday performance could even lead to “arrested development”.  To minimize the possibility of arrested development, it is necessary to couple formal learning with guided on-the-job experiences.

Our challenge as leadership development practitioners is to blend the learning outcome of Interaction Management courses with challenging developmental initiatives on the job. Helping leaders keep their focus on the learning goals as they pursue the development initiative alongside achieving performance goals, increases the likelihood of developing leadership expertise.

After learning more about deliberate practice, I have developed an even higher regard for the simple, yet powerful skill practice in Interaction Management and I am more concerned that we need to encourage our students to practice the same deliberate practice on-the-job. Would a little more skill practice help you?

Victor L. Magdaraog is a Vice President Development at Dimensions International (DDI) in the Phillipines.