DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

Strategic Leadership That Wasn't - A (J.C.) Penney for Your Thoughts...

By Mike Hoban

The other day on an infrequent trip to the mall, I walked into J.C. Penney (or rather “JCP” as it has been rebranded) to check things out. The chain had been in the headlines a lot lately because of the radical new strategy that CEO Ron Johnson – the former Apple merchandising whiz – had been putting into place. But the game-changing overhaul he envisioned was not quite going as planned. Sales were down – way down. The company was hemorrhaging cash. Customers were staying away. Then last week Mr. Johnson was fired, and the company is now huddling with financial advisors to look at options for raising cash. A lot of cash – fast.

The drama of the cratering of JCP under CEO Johnson will be chronicled in books, blogs and business school case studies for the next few years, and many commentators and analysts will weigh in on what went wrong and what the lessons learned are. A smart executive from outside the immediate industry with a strong track record, who had big and innovative ideas – just the thing a rather ordinary retail chain needed. People in the know say that Penney needed “fixing” but clearly this fix didn’t take. How come?

As I walked through the work-in-progress aisles in the mall store and as I thought about the many articles I had read about the new strategy it occurred to me that what happened was simply a failure of strategic leadership.

In one of DDI’s programs - “Strategic Leader Experience” – we define strategic leadership as having three components:

• Developing a vision of what the business is or should become
• Gaining acceptance of that vision
• Executing the vision by mobilizing resources to achieve the desired results  

CEO Johnson clearly had a vision. It was a grand vision, a compelling vision. He refined it and he articulated it and he felt very passionate about it. He earned high marks for that component.

But developing the vision has to be followed with the gaining acceptance thing. The investor community seemed to accept it, as did his board and the hedge fund manager who was Penney’s largest shareholder. Ditto for many of the brands and merchandisers who signed on.

The employee base? Well, since tens of thousands of employees were let go as part of the re-inventing of the company (the company says the official tally is 19,000) it’s probable the managers and associates were less than enthusiastic about the new world order that was on the drawing boards. And the stakeholders who clearly did not embrace the new vision were the ones that mattered the most – the customers. Part of Johnson’s strategy was to go upscale and to also do away with sales and have “fair” everyday pricing. Thud. Overall, he was given a failing grade by his real bosses – the customers.

Lastly, effective strategic leaders ensure the vision is executed by mobilizing resources. The CEO brought in former Apple managers to execute and used the power of the office to get things done. He wrote big checks to reconfigure the stores. The plan was moving forward. But most innovation experts suggest small steps and testing prototypes before jumping in with both feet. The new JCP was to be launched nation-wide with no testing or tweaking of the concept. There would be no “little bets.” After all, that’s how Apple was successful with its stores. Like with the Field of Dreams approach, if you build it they will come. Well, they started to build it and they (the customers) didn’t come.

Despite the overall lack of success for the costly Penney makeover, there were/are some very innovative and paradigm-busting ideas on the table. It is up to the new CEO (who is the former CEO who was replaced by Johnson) to sort out what to move forward with and what to jettison. The vision will need to be reworked if customers are enticed to come back and spend their money. And in the end, it’s still about the simple – but not so simple – equation for strategic leadership: Vision + Acceptance + Execution.  

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

Pat Summerall’s One Big Lesson for Leaders

By Bradford Thomas

This week the sports world lost one of the great play-by-play announcers. For more than two decades, Pat Summerall sat alongside John Madden at the pinnacle of sports broadcasting. He lent his baritone voice to 16 Super Bowls, as well as the Master’s and the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Each year during the Super Bowl, the NFL presents the Pat Summerall Award "to a deserving recipient who, through their career, has demonstrated the character, integrity and leadership both on and off the job that the name Pat Summerall represents."

In the broadcast booth, John Madden garnered most of the attention thanks to his over-the-top color commentary peppered with “booms” and an overactive telestrator finger.  But it was Summerall’s short, staccato statements that punctuated iconic sports moments, such as “The Catch” where he simply said Montana “throws it in the end zone. Touchdown.” Summerall described his approach by saying “words were not necessary…that’s all that needed to be said.” 

These are sound words of advice for bosses and leaders at all levels. All too often in meetings, leaders speak more than they listen, tell more than they seek. This discourages two-way communication, making others feel that their opinions don’t matter—ultimately eroding engagement and trust. So if you want to build better relationships, follow Pat’s lead: cut down on the words.     

Thank you for the memories, and rest in peace, Pat Summerall.

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

It’s Time to View Leadership as a Profession

Leadership is a craft. So why do so few see it that way?

By Rich Wellins, Ph.D.

The 2011 documentary film Jiro Dreams of Sushi tells the story of an 85-year-old sushi chef and his small restaurant in a Tokyo subway station—the only sushi restaurant in the world to be awarded a three-star Michelin Guide rating. Jiro, the sushi chef, has been making sushi for most of his life, but still, well into old age, he strives for perfection.

I recommend you watch this film yourself (it’s now available on DVD). Better yet: watch it with a group of leaders! As you will see in this film, Jiro is a professional in the truest sense. I challenge you, upon watching the film and seeing how passionate Jiro is about sushi, to imagine what it would be like if the leaders in your organization were as passionate about leadership.

Of course, people who take their craft seriously—people who leaders can learn from—aren’t found only in movies.

There is a local jewelry repair kiosk in the mall near where I live. My family has been customers there for over a decade, and I have always respected the owner’s passion for what he does. He has told me he considers his work a real craft, and that he has invested 18 years in constantly trying to improve.

For the past three decades I have spent about 20 percent of my time traveling. When on an airplane, I always make an effort to strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to me. What we talk about always tends to follow the same course. We exchange names, tell where we are from, and, of course, explain what we do. I have met many interesting people this way, including the COO of McDonald’s, the prime minister of agriculture for Thailand, and Patch Adams, the physician who sought to humanize medicine and was portrayed by Robin Williams in a 1998 theatrical film about him.

I have met engineers, pilots, sales managers, marketers, teachers, and bankers. But I cannot recall one single person—not one—who has ever told me that he or she was a leader.

Why is this? I believe it’s because no one really sees leadership as a profession. In spite of the fact that there are some 10 million-plus leaders in the U.S. alone, few identify themselves as leadership professionals. This is, in many respects, incredible.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons leadership quality is considered by many to be mediocre, at best. Dozens of survey reports continue to decry the sad state of leadership. DDI’s own Global Leadership Forecast 2011 reported that only about 38 percent of leaders rate their organization’s leadership quality as high.

So, how can we begin to change the way we think about leadership? I believe it boils down to these four things:

1. Look at leadership as a chosen specialty. One of the defining traits of professionalism is specialization—choosing to devote tremendous time and effort to attaining a high level of proficiency in a single field, such as music, surgery, or law. As a result, professionals will describe their profession not only in terms of what they do, but also in terms of what they have devoted their time and effort to master. 
   
   The same should be true for leaders. Leadership is a craft that is perfected over time through the focused dedication of time, attention, and self-awareness. When you become a leader, whatever your level or industry, it becomes your profession and you have an obligation to invest the time and effort to become the best leader you can be. Most leaders simply do not look at it this way, however. It’s time for that perception to change!
2. Use standards. Professions usually have standards for performance, knowledge, and skills. Some require degrees, certifications, accreditations, and exams. Due to the evolving nature of professional standards in some fields, continuing education is also required. For example, in the human resources profession, both the American Society for Training and Development and the Society for Human Resource Managers have established standards and certification processes. But if you do a Google search on “general leadership standards” you will come up with very little (my search only generated about 1,700 results).
   
   There is no one examining body for leadership and no continuing education credits are required. Yet, each year countless job analyses, academic studies, and books attempt to distill the essence of good leadership. While the outputs of these efforts vary in form, there tends to be little variance in the skills, behaviors, and personality components identified as being essential to extraordinary leadership. 
   
   In their own way, these components amount to a set of commonly accepted leadership standards. And while we are unlikely to see a leadership standards board with national or global certification processes (though that isn’t a bad idea), there are a handful of valid tests and assessments that can accurately predict leadership performance. Still, only one in three organizations uses these tools.
3. Pursue your passion. Just because you are part of a profession doesn’t mean you are a professional. Many people find themselves in professions from which they derive little if any satisfaction. On the other hand, most professionals are highly motivated to do what they do and do it well. I would argue that many leaders consider what they are doing—leadership—a “job” as opposed to a lifelong passion. 
   
   On the other hand, extraordinary leaders (the true professionals) love being in leadership for the right reasons: helping people grow, mobilizing the organization in a new direction, and building engaged and high performing teams. Motivations such as these should be what really matter to leaders.
4. Practice. Practice. Practice. Much like Jiro the sushi chef, the late Pablo Casals, the great cellist, practiced into his eighties. When asked why, he said, “I can always get better.” The same attitude should apply to leadership. Doug Conant, the highly respected former CEO of Campbell Soup Company, put it this way: “To me, leadership is my craft and I have to work at it, and I’ve got to have the same continuous improvement mindset about my job that I challenge my associates to have about theirs.” 
   
   True professionals like Conant are never complacent. Hours of practice are what make them stand out—and what keeps them on top of their game. Leadership skills can be learned and they can and should be practiced. When leaders commit to continuous improvement in their craft, there’s no limit to how good and how effective they can become.

The time is at hand for us to start viewing leadership as the honorable profession that it is. If you are leader, commit yourself to your profession, and strive to develop the right leadership skills, especially the Interaction Essentials required for the successful conversations that are the foundation of leadership effectiveness.

Work hard to improve, and be proud of the important work that you do. After all, your ability to be a great leader really matters to your organization. Make the most of the opportunity.

Rich Wellins, Ph.D. is senior vice president at DDI. 
 
To download The Essential Guide to Interaction Essentials and learn more about DDI’s Interaction Management^®: Exceptional Leaders (IM: ExL^SM) series, visit www.ddiworld.com/leadershiptoday.

DDI wants to know: Do women leaders take on mentor roles?

Note: For e-mail subscribers, please click on the title to access the full article

We have long heard about the advantage of mentorship for women in achieving higher levels of success. But we know much less about this growing population in the workforce as actual mentors. The key question this research by Development Dimensions International, Inc. (DDI) attempts to address is Do women leaders take on mentor roles? Why or why not? 

This short survey asks women in the workplace about their experiences as mentors. We encourage you to forward this survey on to any other women you know in mid- to senior-level positions. Thank you for contributing to this important research.

Take The Survey

 

Forbes: Go Easy, Boss!

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Forbes leadership editor, Frederick Allen highlights the DDI “Lessons for Leaders from the People Who Matter” in a recent column on Forbes.com.

Think the Boss Is a Bully and You Could Do Better? You're Not Alone

By: Frederick Allen

Some 55% of non-management workers have considered leaving their jobs because of their boss, and 45% think they could be more effective than the boss. Those are boss-damning findings of a new survey of 1,279 workers in 10 nations conducted by Harris Interactive for Development Dimensions International, a human resources consulting firm.

Click here to continue reading on Forbes.com

Denver or Bust! See you at ASTD next week.

by Aviel Selkovits

We're packed and ready to go...are you?

So we are finalizing our shipment and packing our bags in preparation for the ASTD 2012 International Conference & Expo and I have to say I am very excited! This will be my fifth time attending the conference and every year it gets better. The agenda is packed with great keynote speakers and presentations (some great ones from DDI experts, of course) and I’m thrilled to hear all the new, exciting and innovative practices shared throughout the four days. Here are the three things I’m most excited about:

1. Focus on future leaders. I see a number of sessions focused on the next generation of leadership talent. How are organizations identifying these leaders, and how are they preparing them?
2. Learning technologies. Gaming, gamification, learning 2.0, social media…all these terms have made their way into presentation titles or descriptions. It’s a hot topic, and the Learning Technologies track is filled with topics related to using these new tools and methods to drive organizational learning and leadership development.
3. Networking! This is always one of the conference aspects I get most excited about! I enjoy meeting others in our profession, across industries, who are looking to learn, share and grow with one another throughout the week. Expanding my thinking and my network…now that’s what I call an engaging show!

 So are you going? What are you most looking forward to? Comment here or visit me at Booth #800!

Driving and Sustaining the Work Revolution

By Barry Stern

Part Two: In Part 1 of this series, newly published author of The Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All and Google alum Julie Clow made the case for why we need a workplace revolution.  In this second part of our discussion, I asked Julie to provide some practical tips for revolutionizing the workplace.  First, I asked her to comment on a very hot topic in the corridors of DDI and with many of our clients – innovation. I asked Julie for her perspective on what we can do to drive innovation.

 

The notion of creating an “idea-testing rather than an idea-judging culture” resonates strongly for me, and yet I am struck by how few leaders I’ve known through the years seem truly dedicated to creating the space for their folks to do just that without some fear of repercussion.  And breaking down the walls between organizational silos, sometimes even between cubes, is something many leaders at all levels seem to recognize and seek to impact.  Digging in further to the role of leaders, I was curious to gain Julie’s perspective on what leader actions it takes to drive a workplace revolution.

  

DDI has been espousing the notion of leaders “seeking” vs. “telling” for many years; however Julie’s words emphasize the aggregate strength in tapping into the collective energy and ideas of our employees.  And to leaders in the “never-off” world to which she refers in her book, it is easy to see why Julie would turn to the notion of prioritization as so critical.  

It struck me as our discussion unfolded that it would be interesting to get Julie’s take on what the role of HR might be in the Revolution, so that was where I turned to next.

   

So for Julie, it would appear the primary role of HR in this regard is to be the “culture carrier” and to put in place tools, systems, skills, and communications that support the more open culture she is asking us to create.  And, speaking of culture, I couldn’t help but wonder about what it was like to be inside the presumably open culture of Google.  Is it in fact that “revolutionized workplace” that we think it to be? We’ll get a peek inside the Google culture in the final installment of our discussion with Julie Clow coming up in the next week or so.

What Does March Madness Tell us About Leadership Promotions?

Bradford Thomas, Product Manager

Being from Kentucky—where we have no professional sports teams—March Madness rises to a whole different level. It’s our Super Bowl, our World Series and our Stanley Cup. Don’t believe me? Check out
this blog on ESPN.

The annual NCAA Basketball Bracket pool turns everyone into water cooler prognosticators. Annual bragging rights in the office pool centers on your ability to amass a lot of points by picking the early round upsets. For those novices reading this blog, it means picking lower skilled teams (10-16 seeds) over much more talented teams (1-4 seeds).

But does this phenomenon occur in the business world? You bet your college mascot it does.

Read the entire blog on Great Leadership.

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.