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.

Yes, Of Course it Matters

This was excerpted from a guest blog Rich Wellins wrote for Great Leadership.

By Rich Wellins, Ph.D.

Does the quality of leadership matter?

Put 10 people in a room and ask them how they define leadership. Chances are, you’ll get a lively debate but not a lot of agreement. The word “leadership” can mean very different things to different people. Some believe that a leader’s key responsibility is to nourish and cultivate team members, while others believe that it is to drive growth and innovation. The reality, of course, is that both perspectives are true. Still, no matter how they define leadership, those 10 people will probably agree on one thing: Leadership makes a difference.

The difference between the impact that a top-performing leader and an average leader has on an organization is at least 50 percent, according to leaders participating in DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2011. In fact, this research demonstrates that organizations with the highest quality leaders were 13 times more likely to outperform their competition in key bottom-line metrics such as financial performance, quality of products and services, employee engagement, and customer satisfaction. Specifically, when leaders reported their organization’s current leadership quality as poor, only 6 percent of them were in organizations that outperformed their competition. Compare that with those who rated their organization’s leadership quality as excellent—78 percent were in organizations that outperformed their competition in bottom-line metrics.

In this study of 1,897 HR representatives and more than 12,000 leaders from 74 countries some of the global findings are . . . Read the entire blog on Great Leadership.

Rich Wellins, Ph.D., is a Senior Vice President at Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Horrible Bosses…the Movie and the Reality

By Aviel Selkovits

Friday night I saw the new movie “Horrible Bosses.”    If you are not familiar with the plot, the movie is focused on 3 friends – each of whom is a model employee with a less than ideal leader. The level of disgust these individuals have with their boss rises to such a level that they actually conspire to find a way to kill them.  And just for the record, we are not recommending it is a good way to deal with workplace difficulties! But it got me thinking…

There is a reality to the movie that is somewhat unnerving. For how many hours we spend at work, our leaders can have a significant impact on how we are in the rest of our lives. It is not always so easy to leave work “at the door” and shrug off whatever stress we experienced during the day. How many times have you had a bad day at work and then snapped at a spouse or child? Or perhaps you were so exhausted and disenchanted that you decided to stress eat, or skipped out on exercise? The fact is, who leads us at work matters in more ways than just our career. Leaders are in a great position of power to influence how we interact with others, and feel at the end of the day.

It has often been reported that the number one reason people leave their job is because of their boss.  However voluntary turnover was much lower in the past two years, mostly due to an extremely tight job market as a result of the Great Recession. In 2009, DDI conducted a survey of non-leaders called Pulse of the Workforce and we found that 55% of individuals said they would leave their organization as soon as the economy improved. So what does that say about the state of leadership in our organizations? Have our leaders been “coasting” or have they stepped up as well to ensure their teams are engaged, motivated and empowered in their jobs?

Looking at more recent research, DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2011, the answer would be no. But it isn’t that we have bad leaders – leadership development has not been delivering on its promise. When we interviewed individual contributors, we also asked what skills they wish they could change in their boss. Communication, listening and feedback rose to the very top. These skills are the basics, and are essential to success as a leader. If  a leader cannot master these, they will never be able to master more difficult competencies such as influence, conflict resolution or coaching.

So how can you ensure you are developing leaders that inspire their teams, rather than have their teams conspire against them? Well for one, take stock of who you have. Where are your leaders’ current skills gaps? What strengths can they be leveraging? What kind of development do they need? And from a team member side, what opportunities can your leaders provide them to ensure they are growing and developing personally and professionally at work?

So have you ever left a job because of a bad boss? Have you ever stayed somewhere because of a good one? What did your best boss do that made her or him the best? 

Aviel Selkovits is a Senior Consultant at Development DImensions International.

The Important Leadership Conversation That Often Doesn’t Happen…

By Mike Hoban

There’s an old saw in politics you likely have heard which can be paraphrased as “If nominated, I will not run; if elected I will not serve.”  It’s called the Sherman Pledge (named after the Civil War general) and it’s about publicly declaring one’s intent to not pursue a particular office. Unfortunately, in business there are sometimes talent management decisions made without first testing assumptions about someone’s aspirations and intentions to see if there is a personal Sherman Pledge that needs to be revealed. That can make for an awkward situation, a poor talent decision and some egg on a few faces. 

Yet, there is an easy solution – you have a conversation. But I get ahead of myself…

I’ve personally experienced situations like the following: Rebecca, a results oriented supervisor, is seen as having the potential of being a mid-level leader and perhaps higher and is designated to be on the high potential list by a talent review committee. Or Ben, the supervisor of a software team, is seen as ready for promotion to middle management and there is an upcoming opening because of a retirement. Their respective managers then sit down with them and describe the good news opportunities and expectations and oops…        

Oops, as in “I’m happy that I’m highly regarded, but, um, that’s not really what I want to do, at least right now.” For someone like Rebecca, she’s knows that the hi-po track almost always means a relocation and different assignments in order to learn other aspects of the business. It’s a good principal for development, but Rebecca is active in her community, has an aging parent in town who is having health problems and has a husband who has recently started a Ph.D. program at the state university. Oops…

In Ben’s situation, the issue isn’t anything about a possible relocation, it’s about his passion for the work he is currently doing – he loves his job. The job he has. Ben has been writing software since he was in junior high and is a gifted coder. He was promoted to supervisor after three years as a software engineer for the company and he likes very much not only leading his team and providing technical guidance and coaching, he also carries several projects which allow him to do hands-on work. He sees the next level up role as more managing and less “doing,” and moving him further away from the kind of work that he gets jazzed about. Oops… 

The Rebecca and Ben situations are not purely about the classic performance vs. potential issue nor are they purely about the individual contributor track vs. management track. They are hybrid situations and suggest that peoples’ aspirations and values - perhaps today more than ever - are nuanced and don’t necessarily conform to the conventional wisdom guidelines that have served us well in the past. Work-life balances and values have shifted and upward mobility does not always have the allure it might have had traditionally.   

What’s the solution? On some regular basis, managers need to ask their direct reports about their aspirations and about what drives them so they, the managers, can accurately represent those goals and values in talent discussions so that the right opportunities can be identified and person/role mismatches can be avoided.  It seems simple but I’ve been in talent reviews where managers articulated just general impressions about what they think a well-regarded individual wants in his/her career. And someone at the table will ask, “Have you asked her about her specific career goals?” You can guess what the response often is. “Well, not directly…” Due diligence is part of the process, so managers need to have a safe but probing adult conversation about aspirations and career interests. It aids not only in development but in retention as well.     

Of course, some employees will give the safe answers or party line in a career conversation (“Yes, I’d like to be considered for other opportunities to contribute to the company…”) so they don’t get labeled as unambitious and get black-balled for opportunities down the road. The employee needs to trust the boss and the company.  Still, the time for that conversation is before one gets put onto the hi-pot list or before one’s name gets put into the hopper for a promotion, not after.      

It’s common sense but for various reasons it’s not common practice.

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

Hollywood’s Cynical Take on Executive Integrity

By Mike Hoban

Did you see the movie “Unstoppable” about the runaway freight train and which starred Denzel Washington?  A fun and action packed popcorn flick for sure, especially as a $1 Redbox rental, but there was a brief scene in it which pandered to a jaundiced view of what corporate CEOs are supposed to be like. It was about integrity. It was blatant and snarky. And it was unnecessary. Yet, many viewers likely accepted it as a plausible and maybe even a probable way of how things work in the corporate world.

In the scene, several options to stop the runaway train are identified to prevent it from careening off the tracks into some fuel storage tanks in the middle of a downtown area.  Many lives and many dollars are at stake. The CEO is called to make the final decision (so far so good…).  Um, where is the CEO?  Playing golf, of course, with some other well-heeled golfers. His key question to his lieutenant, himself an archetypical “suit,” has to do with the share price implications of the options. Of course, he opts for the choice that minimizes the stock price downside. 

Granted, the job of a CEO is to balance stakeholder interests, which includes being the enterprise guardian for the equity of stockholders, the true owners of the company. But the scene was not about how business leaders have to courageously manage competing interests or wrestle with the grey space or navigate through institutional dilemmas. To this viewer, it was about painting the business leader in one dimension, as only caring about the money and probably his own stock options. It was Gordon Gecko clutching a three wood.

Because of the headlines of recent years, many people are cynical about business leaders and the values they hold.  Yes, there are rogues and book cookers in business and perp walks for executives seem to have high entertainment value. But there are seamy side members of most professions and my experiences and personal optimism lead me to believe that the vast majority of managers and leaders are honest and hard-working. 

Headlines about insider trading or egregious greed are headlines because they represent a deviation from the expected. Does Hollywood really need to fan the flames of some misguided populist thinking which posits that the corporate suites are integrity-free zones? I suppose a story about a CEO with high integrity and a strong moral compass wouldn’t sell many tickets.    

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

Learning 2.0: Beware the Power Law

Excerpted from "A Practical Approach to Leveraging Learning 2.0" in ASTD's March 2011 issue of Learning Circuits. 

By Aviel Selkovits

The wonderful thing about social media is that it presents a highly democratic space. You can choose to be an active participant in the conversation, building a highly collaborative and creative forum. Or you can choose to be more of a ‘consumer’ of the information, anonymously reading others’ posts and comments.

However there is a dirty little secret to Web 2.0—and thus Learning 2.0, and that is the Power Law. The Power Law, by definition, is a mathematical relationship between two quantities. In the case of social media, it has evolved into a 90-9-1 distribution. Essentially, 90 percent of people using these tools are passive observers, 9 percent are active contributors, and 1 percent are the leaders and creators. While this distribution is perfectly adequate in the world of social media, when it comes to leadership development it can create some hurdles to effective implementation.

The impact of using these tools as part of your learning implementations is that they enable everyone to have a voice and to contribute. As shepherds of organizational development, we have to build accountability around the usage of these tools. The value of the learning activities, and the sense of community created, is greatly improved when everyone joins in the conversation.

Workplace learning and performance professionals need to promote the value of these activities and tools before the learners ever sign online or enter a classroom. As some leaders will be hesitant to be the first to post, consider putting up applicable questions they can respond to, making it less daunting to get the conversation started. Providing meaningful activities and follow-up will build their enthusiasm and accountability, which will drive them to continue practicing and honing their newly learned skill set. But beware: Don’t think if you put these new tools out there that everyone will jump to use them—as with all change, there is an adoption process that has to be managed.

Read the entire article online in Learning Circuits.

Aviel Selkovits is a Senior Consultant in DDI's Learning Solutions.

Leadership Lessons from Dr. Seuss

By Nikki Dy-Liacco

This week would have marked the 107^th birthday of the late Theodor Seuss Geisel, fondly known to all of us as Dr. Seuss. His colorful and best-selling stories Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas have captured the hearts of kids and kids-at-heart around the world. I still love reading my pop-up book of Oh, The Places You'll Go! and enjoyed the movie adaptation of Horton Hears a Who! from a couple of years ago.

Quotable quotes from Dr. Seuss continue to remind me of important life lessons. As I am currently preparing for an upcoming Leadership Development Program, a little light bulb went off in my head: there is also a lot to learn from Dr. Seuss on leadership! After a quick Google search, I realize that others have had the same a-ha moment. But because I am a big fan, I couldn’t not write this blog. In the spirit of freezy-breeze-made-these-three-trees-freeze-alliteration, here are a few C’s on leadership:

• Camaraderie. The all-time favorite The Cat in the Hat has a great line: “It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how.” Building true camaraderie in the workplace goes beyond just having fun for fun’s sake. I like how the Great Place to Work Institute defines camaraderie as one of their five dimensions; it is the ability to be oneself; a socially friendly and welcoming atmosphere; and a sense of “family” or “team” in the company. Leaders play a critical role in creating and sustaining a culture of authentic camaraderie. Their visibility and accessibility (especially of senior leaders), as well as the way they recognize and reward employees both formally and informally, can make a huge difference in making a company a great (and fun!) place to work.

• Commitment. The Lorax promises, “I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.” Unfortunately, not all leaders stand firm behind their teams, speak on their behalf, defend their direct reports as needed, or give credit where credit is due. It cannot be stressed enough how organizations need leaders who are committed to their teams and who can be trusted by their people. Through their behaviors and decisions, leaders must earn that trust every day. Their values must be visible through their actions, and they must walk-the-talk, and be both able and willing to be held up as an example to others. “I meant what I said and I said what I meant,” goes the line in Horton Hears a Who! “An elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent!”

• Confidence... not just in themselves, but more importantly, in others and especially in their teams. Organizations need leaders who encourage others to fly high: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. Oh! The Places You’ll Go! You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.” In our white paper on Leadership Beliefs, leaders need to coach and set others up for success, to give up the limelight and let others shine—which also mean leaders need a strong, not a big, ego. Leaders who are secure about their own accomplishments and achievements are comfortable to take the back seat and truly enjoy seeing others learn, grow and succeed (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed!).

• Continuous learning. In I Can Read with My Eyes Shut, Dr. Seuss writes: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Imagine if all leaders took charge of their own professional development (which goes beyond just reading of course) instead of waiting to be sent to an assessment center or assigned a new project? A client recently shared with me how he wishes leaders would see their and their direct reports’ Individual Development Plans as a fluid process; not just an annual chore or a compliance document with check boxes to tick off, but an ongoing journey to improved performance and better results.

What are your favorite leadership or life lessons from Dr. Seuss or any other children’s book?

Nikki Dy-Liacco is DDI’s Marketing Manager for South East Asia.

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)