DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

Talent Resolution #10: Live in the crisis mindset

By Barry Stern, Ph.D.

It’s time for you to admit it. The last months have caffeinated your world. There’s part of you, regardless of your specific plight, that has found this whole economic mess energizing. Somewhere along the line you decided that you were either going to go fetal or grab for the gusto. And grab you did. You “changed your game” and “did more with less”; thereby developing new muscles, stamina and courage you didn’t know you had. It’s been months since you used the word “proactive” and yet now you actually understand what it means, even in the midst of crises. The term “lifelong learning” actually means something to you. And you found yourself either sitting in a boardroom or at less oxygen-rich organizational levels than those you customarily inhabit.

Eight months ago that craggy jerk who wouldn’t take your calls for the last two years walked into your office, a dumb smile molded onto his face, and asked you to help keep him out of court as he got rid of 20% of his fatso organization. And you did it. And he’s your new best friend and somehow not quite so craggy.

Crises are mobilizing. As new sales plummet and loyal customers flee, the warts on our corporate structures reveal themselves in high ugly relief.  People become figure instead of ground.  As a result, HR professionals are reincarnated as mission critical.  So let’s reflect for a moment as to how you rose to the occasion: 

1. You asked questions to clarify what the end game was unflinchingly and offered your passionate suggestions with nary a thought of intimidation or politics.
2. You resisted your temptation to gather still more data before acting, figuring you were smart enough not to make really silly mistakes.
3. You didn’t define your mistakes as “really silly,” fixed them, and never lost a beat.
4. You implemented while learning and found that you’re pretty good at it.
5. You developed a new personal equilibrium coupled with deepened organizational credibility.

Aren’t you sad all this fun might end? If it does, don’t lose your edge. And if not, I know you will carry on.  Either way, don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.

Follow the series 10 Talent Resolutions for 2010.

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

Running Uphill

By Barry Stern, Ph.D.

After having been away from running for around 10 years and beginning to train again about month ago, Saturday I ran in a local 5K and had a blast!  Perhaps I was inspired by the upcoming New York City Marathon, which I completed in a blinding 1997 rainstorm that still brought out about 1,000,000 spectators (or as I thought of them that day, my closest friends) across the Five Boroughs. An incomprehensible celebration of human accomplishment, tolerance, collegiality, and diversity, to this day the experience continues to produce psychic returns.

Less vivid are my memories of the 5AM training runs, or the missed family Sundays when I “went long” with my training partner. Nor do I much reflect on the occasional nausea, the aches, pains, blisters, cold, or the uphill runs when right before blessed relief at the top of some crucifying hill in Chesterland, Ohio, my heart felt like it was about to punch through the back of my ribcage. But there is a steel-like mental connection of that marathon peak experience with those long hours of excruciating training. 

Today it feels to many of my colleagues and our clients that we see the top of that heart pounding hill and perhaps can even glimpse at what’s beyond. The more optimistic of us feel that marathon day is approaching. And we know that getting to this point in some semblance of health has meant we’ve developed new muscle. And yet, for all too many leaders, this singular focus has come at the expense of those they lead.

Understandably, leaders have focused their efforts on managing costs, ensuring profitability, doing more with less, and chasing revenue. But what has been the toll on human capital? Consider these harrowing statistics from our recently completed Pulse of the Workforce survey:

• 55% of those surveyed say they will move to another company if they have the opportunity
• 51% feel stagnant and only 29% of those folks feel like they’re interested in what they do. A typical comment is “same old thing, day after day.”
• 44% of stagnant workers plan on actively looking for another job when the economy improves. Typical comment: “I’m just killing time until the economy improves”.

Many of us feel that our organizations have been left with “the best” as a result of these times. But what actions is your company taking now to ensure that your world class runners are entered and ready for the race?

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

Seaworthy Performance Management

By Barry Stern, Ph.D.

My personal psychological stimulus package arrived the other day. An email from a good friend and talented ex-colleague contained the phrase “missing our quarterly bonus discussions.” These sobering times had caused me to repress the lunacy of another era and at first I didn’t get it. To what bonus discussions was she referring?

Her subsequent phone call cleared it up. She remembered a time we were part of a company that had artfully created a performance management and bonus system utterly independent of our behavior. Furthermore, while the company stock plummeted, we received what seemed to us significant quarterly bonuses. We weren’t “gaming” the system; the system was “self-gaming”.

Contrary to what you might think, while we enjoyed the bonus and felt the dollars well deserved, having our behavior “de-linked” from our rewards felt absurdly hollow. Much nervous laughter accompanied each discussion as we tried to make sense of the circumstance. Furthermore, the little “development” my direct supervisor attempted to provide was merely extraneous noise. He didn’t get me, the situation, or the true development opportunities our dire company situation presented. And so, I and those closest to me, became rudderless, disengaged ships at sea. When the opportunity arose, many of us jumped ship. Some, with no apparent performance based rhyme or reason, were eventually asked to walk the plank.

Today’s performance management connectivity challenge is decidedly different. As companies enter Q4, hordes of talented folks are burdened with goals that through today’s lenses feel unachievable. Yet, these times call upon us to develop more mental and sometimes physical muscle – and fast. Performance management and bonus discussions conducted in this unique time will deeply color perceptions and longer-term allegiances. How will you leverage this unique opportunity?

Some critical questions to ponder:

• What are the unique business conditions your company has experienced and how will they impact performance management and bonus discussions?
• How confident are you that those discussions will reflect your company’s core values?
• What have you done differently this year to prepare your leaders for these discussions?
• What unique opportunities for development does this time represent?

In today’s roiling business waters, navigating the performance management course tests the skills of even our most adept leaders. While the waters are treacherous, the organizational and development payoffs are more than worth the voyage.

Barry Stern is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Green Eggs Revisited

By Barry Stern, Ph.D. 

Recently my wife Peggy and I set off on a vacation with our three teenagers to Zion, Bryce, and Arches national parks. I had no idea that this New York City boy would so appreciate the “in-your-face” nature experience. This was the last trip with all three still teenagers.  And so, begging, cajoling, humoring, badgering, and bribing were requisite skill sets for participating in yet another hike in the scorching August heat. We were reality show “Sam-I-Am’s” in our own Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham adventure.

This mesmerizing book echoes through my life. Fifty words, 49 of them monosyllabic, evoke recollections of my own childhood, that of my children, and even business, being cited by a few ex-IBM-ers I’ve met as “the greatest business book on persistence ever written.” (If you know more about the IBM connection, please let me know.)

But I now find myself thinking about this old friend differently.  It’s not just about persistence. At this point, I’m thinking about it more as a tale reflecting our ability to help others realize their potential.

Sam-I-Am was convinced that his target unnamed creature would like those green eggs and ham if he would only just try them. This, despite, the crescendo of protestations, gave him, this monosyllabic strong man, the fortitude to stay with it. What personal power; what insight; what strength of conviction!

I’ve found that many folks confuse past performance with potential, believing that because leaders have been successful in other jobs (or who have eaten standard-issue eggs before, liked them and performed well fueled by them) they will make great leaders (and green eggs and ham consumers). This is a huge mistake, one with disastrous personal and organizational consequences.

Today, we have the knowledge base to understand potential at a deeper level than ever before. There are unnamed characters out there who think they will like and be fueled by green eggs and ham but in fact will get very sick on them; the converse is also true.  So I ask us, do we have the courage to turn our knowledge into action to channel our inner Sam-I-Ams?

Barry Stern is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Creepy Crypts and Derailing Daemons

By Barry Stern, Ph.D.

The last few months have provided me a spate of opportunities to provide 360 survey feedback to senior executives. Without exception it was easy to see the “towering strengths” that catapulted these folks to organizational heights. But perhaps the most compelling aspect of their makeup was their intellectual and sometimes emotional inhalation of the feedback. Intimate and knowledgeable about themselves, their passion for converting the feedback into action permeated each conversation.

Last week found me doing this work in my New York City hometown. Hopping on mass transit around the island, I found myself amidst a sea of magazines and newspapers competing with one another for “Michael Jackson Mind Share”. My personal favorites were the two line rhymes and alliterations such as “Wacko Jacko” and his “Creepy Crypts”. One need only glance at the more recent photos of Jackson to know something had gone frighteningly wrong.

I’m sure because of the juxtaposition of these two events I found myself speculating about Jackson’s “feedback environment”. There were undeniable towering strengths. The first time I saw him moonwalk I was convinced he had figured out a way to defy the laws of physics. But he was of course very human. If Jackson did have a serious problem, how many people talked with him? Did he listen? Was he such an “alpha” presence that to be with him was to be reduced to sycophantism? For goodness sakes, did anyone tell poor Michael that he was starting to look like an alien? Where was the feedback loop?

Perhaps they did. Perhaps what we witnessed was the horrible distortion that results when power, wealth, and world class talent meet unwillingness to hear the words of others. DDI’s President Bob Rogers will cite receptivity to feedback as the most important interpersonal predictor of leadership success. For me, I want to redouble my efforts to continue learning, and I am re-inspired to amplify the voices of others to those executives who so profoundly impact the professional fate and well being of so many.

How successful are the leaders in your organizations at taking a step back to really hear and understand the feedback they receive? And how aggressively do you pursue creating a feedback-rich culture?

Barry Stern is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Give ‘em a Nudge

By Barry Stern, Ph.D. 

Renting a car at the Houston airport late one night last week, I was asked if I wanted the CDW (Collision Damage Waiver) or “just” the LDW (Loss Damage Waiver) coverage. My automatic “no” response to the “would you like insurance coverage” is deeply ensconced, but this variation caught me off guard.  Trained to respond to the less costly of the two options I’m typically offered, I naively went for the limited coverage.

But why are these tricky “choice closes” so effective even for a tired ole travel dog? Some provocative answers are contained in a powerful, fun read I’ve just completed in the book Nudge by Richard Thaler (an economist) and Cass Sunstein (an attorney) both from the University of Chicago. They explain we are, well, “Human”, contrasting our condition with fictional and always logical “Econs” who, like Spock from Star trek, behave based solely on logic. Econs don’t have upside down mortgages, they get the right amount of exercise each day, and are impervious to the latest manipulations of salespeople trained and incented to trap you into thinking you need something you actually don’t.

What are the broader implications for organizations? Conscious practice of “choice architecture” or engineering the environment to nudge people to make better choices.  For example—

• Want people to make healthy food choices in your company cafeteria? Put healthy foods at the beginning of the line. 
• Want people to contribute to the company 401K so they receive the full company match? Set the default value of your company’s 401K to “contribute @ X%” level.
• Love that succession management practice adopted by IT last year? Or the impact of that front line training in your Chinese operations? Spend more of your precious time broadcasting their successes instead of trying to “logic others” into doing the same thing.

The rather controversial term “libertarian paternalism” is used for such conscious practice of choice architecture. That is, one doesn’t eliminate choices, just orchestrates the environment to have people choose the options that are beneficial.  Why not learn the rules and then nudge boldly, consciously, and creatively? 

Barry Stern is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI).

“Turn Off, Tune Out, and Drop In”

By Barry Stern, Ph.D. 

I made a minor tweak to my 14 year old son Jake’s routine the other night. Picking up on the pressure he was feeling to stay “connected” I suggested he go old school and take a “Facebook Vacation”. Miraculously to me, he took me up on it. Instead of keeping up with the teenage cyber-chatting Jones’, he went dark for a night of solitude. Miraculously to him, he enjoyed the peace of his respite and being alone to explore his thoughts and activities he loves.

When I was Jake’s age, counterculture hero Timothy Leary implored teenage souls to Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out. While many misunderstood this catchphrase as endorsement of psychedelic experiences, his message in fact was far more serious, difficult, and still relevant. In reality, he was imploring us to begin a voyage of “personal development” towards self-discovery and reliance. Leary also anticipated Jake’s experience through his notion of the technology enabled “cybersociety” which would vastly change the way we communicate.

Just a few days ago, a wonderful client asked us to help her organization boil their Talent Management “word soup”. I began to reflect on our struggle to nurture and prod associates transformed into prisoners of corporate cybersociety gone wild. Our symptomology is vast – apologetic “out of office” messages, 24/7 availability, “global” mandates hopelessly disconnected from local cultural realities issued through finger flicks on enter keys, cowardly e or v-mails in lieu of more difficult but resolution-oriented face-to-face engaged conversations - the painful list is endless.

Amidst this swirl of connectivity, consistency of message trumps reaching out and cybertouching associates. Now is the time for simplicity, for back to basics, for true commitment to quality of life. Perhaps time to make it fashionable to Turn Off, Tune Out, and Drop In to accelerate associates’ personal journeys of development and connectedness to the vital few corporate actions that really matter.

So ask yourself:
•    How truly committed are you and your company to quality of life?
•    How clearly and consistently are you communicating the 3 or 4 key “how’s” of your unique culture?
•    How clearly does leadership across the enterprise at all levels reinforce those simple messages?

The rest is just word soup.

Barry Stern is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Embrace the “Brown Fat”

By Barry Stern, Ph.D.

Years ago, a former colleague and business partner, exasperated with a client’s middle management layer, referred to them as “the arteriosclerosis in the veins of the organization”. Today it has become de rigueur to fret over the arteriosclerotic impact of the current global economic climate upon leadership pipelines. Yet while watching the news early one morning this week I found out that there is a “brown fat” that comprises a small percentage of an adult’s body weight which might play some role in regulating body weight and energy balance. Perhaps, I was informed, there may even prove to be a link between obesity and a lack of brown fat. And the very next morning my sensibilities were further assaulted when I was reminded on the same show that the cholesterol scouring class of drugs called statins could cause lethargy, muscle weakness, and liver damage.

So this got me to thinking about two sets of questions:

• What is our responsibility as HR professionals to seize this unique moment in the business environment to leverage those “brown fat” leaders now more likely to remain in our organizations?  How vital to our organizational leanness and energy balance are they? And finally, have we the nuanced approaches and systems to accomplish this in a meaningful way?
• Are our statin-like efforts to “unclog our pipelines” too heavy handed? Will the side effects of our efforts likely sap the vitality from our organizations and ultimately result in permanent disability? 

Just as researchers are sure to learn more about brown fat in the immediate future, I propose that we “embrace the brown fat” with our Talent Management efforts. There’s much to learn. What steps are you taking? This golden opportunity won’t last forever. The clock is ticking. 

Barry Stern is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI).