DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

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)

Leadership ‘In Treatment’

By Rich Wellins, Ph.D.

It’s tough to find time to watch television. However, my wife and I try to find time to watch two shows together. The one that really rocks our boat is HBO’s “In Treatment”.

In its third season, the series follows Dr. Paul Weston, a psychiatrist who helps three different patients over a series of episodes. There is a fourth “series” where Weston goes to his own therapist. Weston is played (superbly by the way) by Gabriel Byrne.

Psychotherapy and leadership are not one in the same. One big difference: analysts need to keep a personal distance with their patients, whereas leaders can get a bit closer. But this scripted show is one of the best ways to see models of leadership skills available. Here is what you will see by watching just one episode in terms of positive leadership behaviors:

• Listening to understand, not refute.
• Asking questions that create insights around actions and behaviors. Dr. Weston above all is a seeker, not a teller.
• Being non-judgmental. Believe me, if you follow the show, he is treating people this season who are antagonistic at best. It would be easy to judge their behaviors.
• And, he will be directive and tough when he needs to be. In one case, a teen (Jessie), brings his mother (he is adopted) into a session and starts to verbally abuse her. In no uncertain terms Dr. Weston tells Jessie he will not put up with that sort of behavior in is office. It is rare, but is firm when he needs to be.

After each show, I actually try to practice some of the behaviors I have just seen (I have a long way to go).

I also cannot help but wonder: Could I work for this guy? My answer is—I’d love it.

If you’ve watched "In Treatment", I’d love to hear if you think of Dr. Weston as a leadership model.

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

Today’s Leader – A View from the World Business Forum

By Mark Dembo

At the World Business Forum yesterday, one of the ongoing mantras from speakers ranging from Jim Collins to Jack Welch to Charlene Li to Joseph Grenny was that the nature of leadership today is different.  Shifts in the global economy, changes in technology, and generational shifts require a much more open and transparent leadership style than the “command and control” era of days gone by.

One of the best examples of this changing shift was highlighted by Charlene Li, one of the world’s foremost authorities on social media and author of the books “Groundswell” and “Open Leadership.”  While her talk was not about leadership per se, her discussion about how social media is changing the business landscape provides many clues about how leaders need to change and evolve in today’s world.

What exactly is the connection between social media and leadership, you ask?   As Li describes, many organizations and CEOs are scared to death of social media – afraid that if they get involved, or let their employees get involved with Twitter, Facebook, and the like, they will lose control. She says there’s a prevailing “mindset that says “‘I’ve got to control everything in order to get things done – the resources, the messages, the people.’ But the reality is that we do business today in a very interconnected world. Even inside a company you have to collaborate and coordinate with people who don’t necessarily report to you.  To do this efficiently, you’re much better off opening up all those channels and silos that have traditionally held power, and having smooth information sharing back and forth across the organization.”

Wow – that rings a bell that goes far beyond just how to embrace social media. >It gets at the very fabric of what leaders need to do to create “Great Organizations” as Jim Collins talks about.

Openness, transparency, authenticity, and collaboration – all themes that loomed large today at the World Business Forum.   That’s how work gets done, and how great companies are made.

Joseph Grenny, author of “Influencer” further echoed this point when he said that strategy is WHAT an organization is going to do, and Influence is HOW leaders need to get things done. Influence is not about using a carrot or a stick – it’s about understanding the behaviors that lead people to act in a particular way, and then tapping into personal, social, and structural sources of motivation to guide people to new or different behaviors.If leaders learn to become better influencers they are far better able to affect change in their organizations.

Ah, then so if I’m good at influencing people, then I can “motivate” people, right?  Well, not exactly.  As Jim Collins discussed at the HR Masters lunch, “great leaders don’t spend time motivating people – they spend time hiring self-motivating people.”

If you look at these varied remarks this start to paint a picture of 21^st Century Leadership – open, transparent, influencers who understand the rapidly changing world around them, and who possess a nimbleness to keep changing and evolving to new shifts in economies, technologies, and complexities.

Stay tuned for more updates as the World Business Forum unfolds, and follow our live twitter feeds throughout the day. 

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

World Business Forum - Day One

By Mark Dembo

Jim Collins kicked off the World Business Forum today, (over 4000 people attending from 65 countries) discussing the four phases of organizational decline from greatness, while discussing the “antitheses” of these factors. At the heart of his message: becoming great, and sustaining greatness comes down to one thing: Leadership – and that even if you stray from the path, it’s (almost) never too late to turn things around – if you can break away from the hubris and unbridled personal ambition that often derail. A real message of hope – and a welcome start to the conference. In my mind, a great signal that the mood of business is shifting.

One of the key take-aways from his talk was a to-do list – a top-ten list if you will, for surviving and thriving.  These are some great take-aways, regardless of rank, title or level in an organization.

1.    Do your diagnostics – assess where you are on the “Good to Great” journey – a free tool can be found on his website.

2.    Focus on Building pockets of greatness, don't focus on career. If you build those pockets of greatness, career success (and organizational success) will follow. 

3.    Ask “what percentage of key seats are filled with the right people?” And, “what are your plans to get as close to 100% that you can?”

4.    Double your questions to statements ratio.

5.    Ask yourself: “How is the world changing and what are the brutal facts?” Do a brutal facts inventory.”

6.    Turn off your electronic gadgets - create white space for deep thinking and analysis at least once every two weeks.

7.    Decide what to Stop Doing: We can only manage our time - not our work, and what we choose to spend our time on is one of the most important decisions we can make. 

8.    Make commitment to get inside your own personal hedgehog.  Collins talks about finding the “sweet spot” of doing what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at (or “genetically encoded to do”), and that can make a difference in the world.

9.    Stop doing "titles" – don’t focus on a “job”, rather focus on responsibilities.

10.    Set a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” for 15-20 years in future based on your “hedgehog.”  Focus on being useful, not successful. 

Follow our live tweets from the WBF and stay tuned here for more updates on trends and observations over the next two days.

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

Rescuing the 'Accidental Manager'

By Kris Routch

The Washington Post’s leadership blog “Post Leadership” published a piece about the accidental manager—individuals who were promoted into mid-level leadership positions without preparation—and even interest—in the job and the additional responsibility.

We’ve seen a lot of research on this topic this year—and the blog post referenced DDI’s own research conducted this year on mid-level leadership—and how this management population has been impacted by the economic events of the last several years.   

Perhaps the biggest thing impacting this group and the roles that they have assumed can be summed up in one word; complexity.  Just think for a moment of the levels of complexity faced by today’s business leaders;  systems complexity, organizational complexity, global complexity, partnership complexity, supply chain complexity, not to mention our  increasingly  complex personal and professional networks. few.  In fact, in a recent IBM study of 1500 CEO’s, complexity was cited as the biggest challenge that today’s CEO’s and their companies are facing.

If CEO’s are worrying about complexity, imagine where that leaves our mid-level leaders who live in the middle of this maelstrom. It reminds me of a  time when my grandfather and I could open the hood of a car  and easily see how everything worked inside, how every issue could be easily diagnosed and fixed, and how everything could be put back together again just the way that we found it. But then engine technology changed and one day I opened the hood of my new car and my grandfather stared blankly at the confusing, complex, computer-controlled, hi-tech engine that lay in front of him and sadly looked at me and let me know that there was nothing he could do to help me anymore. 

I think of this story as we talk to more and more mid-level leaders who have found themselves staring into that proverbial engine that represents their current role in the organization and wondering how it ever got so complicated that they are having trouble figuring out where they start to try to unravel the complexity in front of them. To make matters worse, when they turn to their senior leaders for help, too many times their senior leaders stare back at them with that same look my grandfather once gave me as they realize that the mid-level role they once had wasn’t nearly as complex as today’s role.  

Our research has shown that most organizations continue to struggle with finding ways to effectively address the challenges facing their mid-level leaders and, as a result, these “accidental managers” continue to drift in their sea of complexity yearning for the good old days when it was far easier to make sense of it all.

Kris Routch is an executive consultant with Development Dimensions International (DDI).

And the most undervalued leadership skill is…

By Mike Hoban

Delegation. Granted, it’s not as sexy or as au courant or as seemingly transformational as other leadership competencies such as vision creation or organizational talent building. In fact, the name itself sounds a bit stodgy and shop-worn, compared to its cousin “empowerment.” When’s the last time you saw a CEO’s picture on the cover of Fortune magazine proclaiming him or her to be best-of-breed delegator? Me neither.

But it’s a foundational skill for leaders and I find in my executive coaching work that it’s a competency many leaders struggle with. That leadership philosopher, Tommy Lasorda, who just happened to make a living coaching in major league baseball, said it so very well: “I believe managing is like holding a dove in your hand. If you hold it too tightly, you kill it; but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it.”  Drucker or Deming never said it so compellingly or so succinctly.

Not delegating well can be a barrier to a leader’s – and the organization’s - success. Decisions get bogged down; staff doesn’t get developed; managers put too much focus on what Juran called the “trivial many” instead of the “vital few;” managers get burned out working too many hours trying to handle everything themselves. Being a poor delegator can also overshadow and contaminate even a good leader’s reputation (“Micromanager!”).

Let’s get specific about what this thing called delegation is. Effective delegation is about defining the “what” but allowing others to have a substantial hand in defining the “how” within established constraints. That is, the manager needs to define what the outcome is, what the “specs” are (cost, timing, quality, satisfaction, etc.) and where the chalk lines are drawn on the field for discretionary and independent action on the part of the delagatee. Technically, that’s called “defining latitude.” When a manager defines both the whats and the hows it’s not delegation – it’s simply a task assignment.

At the same time, Lasorda also said holding the dove too loosely is also a bad thing.  Just providing the “whats” to someone and giving him/her absolute freedom for getting it done without any guidance is not delegation. That’s called abdication and is akin to throwing the non-swimmer into the deep end of the pool.

Seems simple enough, so what’s the deal with not being able to do it effectively? Well, let me count the ways…

Some managers:

• Are unwilling to let go of tasks or activities they like to do and which got them promoted over the years;
• Have a perfectionist type of personality and find it difficult to not do things themselves because ONLY THEY can accomplish it with the excellence that they think is needed;
• Need to always be in control and find relinquishing even the “hows” to be an unnatural act;
• Take on too may things because they believe their own staff is already overworked and they don’t want to further overwhelm them.

In most cases, the above tendencies are “fixable,” assuming the individual has self-awareness and has made the decision that the cost of the fix is less than the cost of continuing down the delegation-free zone. The perfectionist personality is probably the most challenging because those people’s “wiring” contributes to and often drives the behavior.

One final point. Delegation is not about letting go of the appropriate attention to detail. It’s about finding the right balance. Steve Jobs is considered by many to be a spectacular CEO and he has steered Apple to great success in the last 10 years. Yet, Jobs is notoriously hands-on when it comes to product and functional design and he gets very personally involved in many of the decisions about product style, look-and-feel, color, etc.—things you’d expect a CEO to delegate to others. But he also focuses on the big picture – the strategy, cultural caretaking, talent management, alliances, board relationships, etc., and in fact considers his obsession with the product details to be part of his strategic focus.

Come to think of it, this delegation stuff is pretty sexy and transformational after all…

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

Survival of the Fittest? Will Your Leaders Survive?

By Steve Newhall

If you were stranded in the wilderness would you survive?  How do you think you would fare in a survival situation? Could you build a shelter from snow? Could you light a fire without matches? Could you forage for food and purify water? The reality is, without adequate survival training and techniques, humans are unlikely to survive more than three hours in extremely high or low temperatures; more than three days without water and more than three weeks without food.

There are well-publicised exceptions to these rules, yet it gets me thinking.  Could there be an analogy for those moving into more senior roles?  Far too often organisations take a ‘survival of the fittest’ approach to managing career transitions, providing little nourishment or skills for those that must adjust to radically different responsibilities and workload.  In real survival training, the best approach is not often to parachute a group of people into the jungle and see who survives. Rather they are taught how to operate in the environment in which they find themselves and what skills to use. So why then do we expect leaders to survive in a new role, with no training and with little support to equip them with the skills needed to make the transition?

We should also not underestimate the power of the mind in determining success or failure.  It has been proven that in a survival situation, those with the strongest will to live, are the most likely to pull through, despite the odds being stacked against them, but in tough terrain, even those with the strongest will power may succumb to the elements eventually.

Fortunately, in the workplace, it isn’t life or death, yet the stress of a new career transition should not be underestimated.  According to a DDI survey, managing a career transition can be more stressful than bereavement or moving home. Many new leaders just aren’t prepared for strain involved or with the need to think differently. However if they are well prepared they have a much greater chance of survival.

So what are the key ingredients for long-term corporate survival when thrown into a new role, with new situations and challenges to deal with? In fact it’s pretty similar to survival training. Leaders need to understand that they are now in unfamiliar territory and that they will need to think differently in order to survive. The skills that they have acquired need to be supplemented with new skills more appropriate to the new environment. And they will need to practice these skills in order to become proficient. They will need to stop doing some of the things they were doing that would now hinder their chances of survival or success.

None of these new ways of thinking and operating come naturally – but they can be taught. We wouldn’t expect to be able to “naturally” survive in the desert or jungle without help, so why do we expect that of our leaders?

Steve Newhall is the Managing Director of Development Dimensions International (DDI) UK.