DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

Succession Management: Treatment for Your Succession Depression

This is the third in a series of blogs from DDI associates presenting at the 26th annual SIOP Conference.

By Matt Paese, Ph.D.

Ever feel like you’re being asked to do the impossible? Join the club. Take 2 minutes and look around to count the number of programs, initiatives, institutions, and other entities, public or private, that are being required to achieve ever-expanding goals while simultaneously facing dramatic reductions in resources. In 2 minutes you’ll likely come up with plenty of examples  down the street in your neighborhood, and down the hall in your office. Also likely is the depression that will set in between minutes 3 and 4.

If one of those “down the hall in your office” examples is your Succession Management system, your misery is in good company.  Next month we’ll be releasing DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast, a global survey of over 14,000 leaders who have shared their knowledge and experience about leadership issues across the waterfront. In the study, Succession Management stands out as a major crisis area.  Bench strength is dismally low, and Succession Management system effectiveness is inadequate. This just scratches the surface, but it’s abundantly clear that many organizations are desperate to find better ways to improve their bench strength and prepare more leaders to take on greater responsibility.

But crises often reveal that necessity is, in fact, the mother of invention, and this week I’ll be part of a  session that will illustrate just that.  Tomorrow at the Society for I/O Psychology’s annual conference in Chicago, I’ll be joining four talented and highly experienced professionals on  a panel looking into contemporary challenges and solutions in Succession Management. More specifically, we’ll be talking about our collective experiences and telling stories of how we’ve seen organizations  increase the health of their Succession Management systems, within the constraints of fewer resources and heightened demands.

My co-panelists will be:

• Laura Heft and Lisa Roberts from Organization Development at Edward Jones
• Scott Mannis, SVP HR from Kellwood Company
• Vicki Tardino, from Organization Effectiveness and Talent Management at Maritz

This group brings a wealth of experience and a tremendous sense of practicality to a field that needs it badly.  We’ll be discussing Succession Management from 4 angles, and telling stories of how organizations have been successful at:

• Aligning to the business situation your organization is currently facing
• Establishing consistency in the execution of the system (even when the world around you won’t stay consistent)
• Building transparency and effective communication into the system
• Creating accountabilities that result in actual, measurable progress in building bench strength

I’m privileged to be joining these talented professionals, and I know our session will yield many useful insights. If you’re in Chicago for SIOP, join us on Friday afternoon.  If you won’t be there, watch here for a summary of key insights after our session. 

Skip the expensive therapy sessions.  Cure your Succession Depression with some powerful stories of success by a panel of people who have made it happen.

Matt Paese, Ph.D., is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for Development Dimensions International (DDI).

You can hear Matt at the SIOP Conference at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, April 15, 2011 on "Improve Succession Management "Health": Diagnosis and Practical Remedies."

Wanted: Quantum Physicist, for Leadership Development

By Matt Paese, Ph.D.

I’ve never met a quantum physicist who switched careers to go into HR. My guess, although I have no evidence of this, is that once you become a quantum physicist you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about career changes, and if you do, you don’t think about leadership development. But on the slim chance that one did, I bet he or she would have a thing or two to say about how we’re going about cultivating great leaders.

In Tuesday’s New York Times, an article in the Health section encouraged: “Forget what you know about good study habits”. Forget using a favorite study space, or creating a consistent routine. Mix it up, the research suggests. Switch locations. Space out the sessions. Study at different times of the day. Give your mind some different background stimuli, and you’ll learn more, and remember longer. Makes sense to me.

But the article also highlighted a point that many have rejected: The more you’re tested, the better. Sorry students. Turns out testing is a valuable learning tool, beyond the mere assessment of knowledge or aptitude. Practice tests and pop quizzes, because of their repetition and the interval between them, facilitate better recall and longer retention, and a significant body of control-group-based research bears out the findings.

This prompted one researcher to invoke an axiom of quantum mechanics: The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which is not a first aid technique. The principle holds that the mere act of measuring something alters its very nature.

Now, I’ve never been a quantum physicist, and I’m not preparing for a career switch, but I got curious about this one. So I did what so many leadership development professionals recommend every day: I looked it up. My own miniature action learning project.

Turns out there’s a bit more to the HUP, as I’m now calling it (I’ve coined the acronym myself in an ego-preserving attempt to demonstrate one thing that HR professionals clearly do better than quantum physicists: come up with acronyms). The HUP is actually quite fundamental to quantum mechanics. And if you haven’t been paying attention to the latest in physics, quantum theory has pretty well stomped on classical theory as the best candidate for explaining all the mysteries of the physical world, birds and bees included.

Why? Classical theory has proven inadequate in its presumption that particles in the world hold, for example, constant positions. Among other problems, sometimes classical theory just can’t find things (e.g., electrons), because they’re constantly in motion. Quantum theory, however, recognizes that sometimes particles or organisms must be understood not by where they are, but rather by the trajectory they are taking – where they are going and have been.

In a similar vein, study and testing that occurs across a series of events and measures better suits the manner in which our minds naturally acquire and retain new wisdom. Once again, movement and trajectory better suit and describe nature. Location and position oversimplify.

So what would the quantum physicist have to say about developing great leaders? My guess is that we would be encouraged to examine leadership over time, and to gather multiple observations, to learn the trajectory of growth, or lack there of. Quantum wisdom would recommend that we assess routinely, and check for patterns.

Heisenberg might remind us that simply conducting a leadership assessment affects leadership, so while we would be wise not to over-assess and create paralysis, we would do well to adopt a consistent means of taking stock of where we are in our quantum world.

Of course, a real quantum physicist would certainly have much more to say about the HUP and my conclusions, if one ever comes to HR.

Matt Paese is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for  Development Dimensions International (DDI)

Talent Resolution #5: Vaccinate: for growth

By Matt Paese, Ph.D.

Roll up your sleeve, squeeze your fist, and if you need to, look away.  This won’t hurt a bit.  It also might not work.

Seems that lots of organizations are feverish these days, suffering from disengaged workforces, leadership under-performance, and at the same time, deeply slashed talent management budgets. 

But these aren’t our worst ailments. I hate to say it, but true talent growth won’t happen because we have great HR programs. Yes, we need these to perpetuate our efforts, but we need something much more basic: we need to be less afraid of our own growth.

Not afraid you say? Ask yourself how much change is needed in your organization.  Now think of the biggest change you’ve made recently (at work).  Be honest.  Does the rate of individual growth meet the demand for it? 

Growth and fear are brothers. As we strive forward, each of us faces our own fears and responds in our own unique ways. 

• The executive who fears her unit is failing responds with aggression and micromanagement
• The software engineer fears layoffs and responds with apathy
• The middle manager fears more strategic confusion and resists change

How do we prevent these well-warranted fears from derailing our efforts, and our growth? We must erect mechanisms to process our vulnerabilities.  Sound too psychological? It’s not. It’s quite simple.

Find the places in your organization where conversations about talent take place, and ask yourself if those are safe places for people to be open and candid, and if the resources and encouragement are there to make it happen. Start by making the unsafe places safer and more truthful.

Vaccination presumes that we have the antidote inside us. The vaccination simply awakens it. So, what vaccinates against our fears? Honesty. Courage. Cooperation.  Authenticity. Humility. And striving to be better. These virtues live in our nature.

This year, let’s take the shot, confront what makes us afraid, together, and turn fear into growth. Talent managers? You have to administer the shot.

Follow the series 10 Talent Resolutions for 2010.

Matt Paese is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for  Development Dimensions International (DDI)

Just Tell the Truth

By Matt Paese, Ph.D.

Yesterday I attended the Human Resources Planning Society conference in Chicago where something interesting happened in a group discussion about talent management with about 40 HR executives from around the country (don’t act surprised).

Searching for some bottom-line answers, we asked a simple question: 

If your talent management system were an engine, what should happen when you switch it on? 

-“More leaders ready at the right time for the right jobs!”, called out a participant. 

-“More people ready to do what the business needs!”, called another. 

Wide consensus. Heads nodding. Organizations need an engine that manufactures readiness to perform business-critical tasks. Check. Next question: 

What proportion of companies have working talent management engines?

-“Less than 20%!,” shouted a pharmaceutical leader from the back. 

Again, lots of agreement and head nodding, and then an additional comment from a woman citing a recent study:

-“…less than 15%”, she concluded. 

-“At best”, remarked another leader.

Okay, so the perception is that not many of these engines work very well. Roger that. Moving right along.  Question #3:

If you could manufacture one tool to improve the performance of your talent management system, what would that tool do?

Murmuring. Discussion. 

-The table in the back submitted an answer, “A better assessment tool to show people how they can develop!” 

Arguments. More discussion.

-“A CEO who really believes in talent management!” 

-“That’s not a tool.”

-“Some of them are.” <smirk>

And then eventually, consensus. The group rallied around one leader who voiced it best:

-“We need something that gives our leaders 2 things: the motivation and the skills to have honest conversations about talent.” She held her arm high and shook one finger, and then two to stress her point. 

The group consensus: The single biggest barrier to effective talent management is a lack of honesty in conversation. By intent or by accident, we don’t fully level with one another. 

A thought: In this resource-barren environment, if your talent management engine isn’t working, consider jump-starting it with one simple question: 

What prevents us from having better, more truthful conversations about talent?

Matt Paese is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for  Development Dimensions International (DDI).

The Leadership Afterlife

By Matt Paese, Ph.D.

Today, professional sports illuminates a contemporary leadership dilemma: what does it really mean to be a team leader?

For those of you with little interest in sports, give me a chance on this.

I should start by saying (with only mild embarrassment) that it’s a tough day for me. Tonight, my all-time sports hero, Brett Favre, will compete against the Green Bay Packers, the team for which he played for 16 years, the team he took to two Super Bowls and repeated playoffs, the team he came to define, the team I’ve cheered for since I was old enough to shout “Go Pack!” My team.

The Packers – a truly unique professional entity, owned by the citizens of an unassuming, unpretentious Wisconsin; the only team that makes you feel proud for eating cheese and wearing it on your head at the same time. Perhaps this un-self-conscious pride in things so mundane, the full ownership of what makes us unique, is part of what defines “the Packer team.” The absence of a glamorous backdrop has long provided Green Bay with a rarified brand of camaraderie. Being a member of our team means that you’re part of the combined Packer-Wisconsin community, and that team stands above anything that we as individuals bring to it.

Sound familiar? The Packers aren’t the only team like that. In fact there are many, and I’m sure you have your own. But tonight, we’re the one that everyone will be watching.

Favre was (I repeat, “was”) perhaps the most quintessential team leader that ever came to Green Bay. Gritty and competitive, boyish with a sense of fun, from similar, unassuming roots, he had a selfless dedication to the team that he showed week after week. He is a winner. He cannot be disputed as one of the toughest players ever to have played the game, never having missed a start in his 16 years as a Packer, or in his 19 games since then with the New York Jets, and now with <choke> the Minnesota Vikings. We Packer fans love Brett Favre, and we always will.

But a Viking? I thought he was a Packer – forever! The Vikings are the Packers’ arch enemy. No region’s newspapers and blogs ever produced more bile-filled anti-Packer and anti-Favre rhetoric than the Twin Cities. Favre, a Viking? This can’t be.

Favre quipped recently that those who are worried about his legacy should be reminded that it’s HIS legacy, not theirs. And this is where he lost me. You see, I’m still on the team, and even though he’s not, the manner of Favre’s departure affects me. Being on a team is one of our most basic needs. To come together to celebrate accomplishment, mourn the lack thereof, and share a common purpose is perhaps one of the great gifts of being human, and leading such an endeavor is an even greater gift.

Leaders move on, especially the great ones, and we expect that. But as they make transitions from one assignment to the next, I hope that leaders always remember that the positive effects of their leadership can long outlast their tenure in the job.

Good luck tonight Brett. We’ll always miss you on the team that used to be yours.

Matt Paese is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for  Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Vision? Whose Vision?

By Matt Paese, Ph.D.

I’ll never forget a conference years ago where I met nice guy whose business card is still somewhere in my desk. Under his name reads the coveted title, “Visionary”. A title like this clearly screams for inquiry, so I couldn’t help asking, but in our short exchange, I never quite figured out how he got the title or what his job was. Now years later, I find myself wondering again.

A short while ago I hung up the phone with a senior executive who runs the web operation for a global retailer. We were discussing a candidate for a major role on his executive team, and a question came up…about vision.

She’s a shoe-in for the job, but her soon-to-be boss asked, “Can she sell the vision?” This organization’s web strategy is new, unique, and will require big change. Not everyone will understand it, and some will almost certainly resist it. 

The well-striped candidate in question is even-tempered, focused and driven, pragmatic, and at times a bit too much so on all these fronts. No doubt she can drive the strategy, but what if she can’t get anyone to believe in the vision? I’m left with a different question:

Where should vision come from, and why should we have to “sell” it?

Doesn’t the phrase “sell the vision” suggest that we’ve already missed the opportunity to involve others in its construction? I know there are some who are clearly better at seeing future possibilities than others, and there are some (often not the same people) who are better at communicating what that brighter future might look like. But is it true that great vision can only be generated from the unique minds of a few “visionaries”? 

I don’t think so. 

While nuggets of possibility are often born from the minds of individuals, it’s only when these nuggets are tumbled by the imaginations of an engaged team that the full measure of a vision is truly fashioned. There is then no need to sell a vision that is already owned by its buyers.

Recently a DDI survey revealed that more than half of US workers feel their careers are stagnant, largely because they’re not involved in challenging assignments.

Since we’re all rethinking the future, and since so many of our associates are feeling stagnant, maybe we should rethink the notion of “the visionary leader”, and begin considering “the visionary organization”. 

Matt Paese is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for  Development Dimensions International (DDI).

A Startling Shock of Insight

By Matt Paese, Ph.D.

Sometimes a startling question can lead to shocking insight. Out of nowhere last week, someone asked me to comment, on camera, in 30 seconds or less, about what I believe leaders need to do differently to be effective today. Now, this wasn’t live television or anything, but still. 

I asked if I could use the bathroom first.  

After cursing my decision to skip a shower that morning, I cleared my teeth, face, and hair of debris from lunch and life in general and took a moment in front of the mirror to reflect, on leadership. Drawing that familiar blank, I did what any self-respecting person would do in a moment of quiet desperation – I thought about someone worse off than me.

More specifically, I thought about an executive I know, a leader in a big corporation, who is having a pretty tough time right now. It seems that as soon as the economy tumbled, so did any semblance of leadership effectiveness in his organization. As though losing their grip on the future, the executive team clenched tighter, using words like execution, accountability, discipline and driving performance which my client said were code for obscene C-suite aggression.

In other words, the reaction to the economic crisis was to make double sure that everyone was doing their job and doing it right. Command and control.  So what’s the harm in that?  Isn’t that what’s required to survive in difficult times? 

Maybe it used to be. 

In my view, at this moment in time we’re sitting on more human potential than at any other time in history. Don’t get me wrong. We aren’t better than our predecessors, but we can generate, share, distribute and organize information and knowledge faster than ever before. We have vast abilities to travel the world physically and electronically, and encounter global events and discoveries in ways never before seen. In short, we have more opportunities to make superstars out of inexperienced people – fast.

Which is exactly why command and control is such a colossal mistake in a crisis. 

Crises are opportunities, and the greatest leaders leverage them by involving others in the solution.  Fist pounding may feel good to anxiety-racked leaders, but for everyone else, it creates fear – the enemy in a crisis. 

After a quick splash of water in my face as a proxy for a shower, I went back out and stumbled through my 30 seconds–What’s needed now is to leave the single-leader model behind, and to adopt a “we all lead” approach that leverages the capability we’ve developed to learn and grow on the fly, together.  That’s the way we’ll lead through this crisis, and those yet to come.

Matt Paese is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for  Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Great opportunity, or an offer you can’t refuse?

By Matt Paese, Ph.D.

“None of us signed up for this.”  That’s what a member of the high potential pool of a large global corporation said to me last week. 

Let’s call him Tim.  Tim is a sales superstar with a phenomenal track record.  People love working with this guy. He talks straight, transforms complicated problems into action plans, and makes hard work rewarding. 

Tim’s had his share of chances to be promoted, but he likes what he does. He doesn’t see the corner office as his destination. 

But the company has a leadership shortage, and they need people like Tim to step up.  So, they asked him to do just that.  Actually, they sort of asked him.      

“This is a good development opportunity for you.... You really need to do this.”  That was the “invitation” from Tim’s boss to join a group of a few dozen high performing leaders, and participate in special development opportunities that would accelerate his growth, and position him to possibly take on a big executive job down the road. A clear business need for the company, and a great career opportunity for Tim.

But Tim was hesitant about the proposition, and that sentiment was echoed by others In the orientation meeting to kick off the initiative, a latecomer (by 5 minutes) was publicly berated as being uncommitted to the company. Whoa. Suddenly this doesn’t sound so much like an opportunity. 

Okay I know what you are thinking: Tim never should have been invited in the first place, and this organization’s process is broken. Maybe so. Probably so. But there’s more.

I asked Tim if he would be interested in accelerated development under any circumstances. He said he would “if they were really serious about involving me in the real business issues”. Turns out Tim is more interested than we might have thought. But his engagement doesn’t have to do with the job he might get, it’s about being a part of the solution. It’s about having impact.

Accelerated development isn’t a one-way street. It isn’t something you wrap up and “give” to someone, particularly when that someone has a track record of success. Accelerated development is something that executives and high potential leaders do together. Growing a cadre of emerging leaders means building a community whose purpose is to solve the most pressing business problems at hand. Everyone learns. Everyone steps up. We grow together.

Are you building a learning community, or making offers that your potential leaders can’t refuse?

Matt Paese is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for  Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Protect the Core

By Matt Paese, Ph.D.

A few months ago, The Conference Board Review published an article I wrote about CEO succession—“Your Next CEO”. At that time, business was in a different place than it is today. I set out to make the point that CEO succession is not just a decision, but rather an ongoing process in which senior leaders are constantly reaching higher.

I also made the point that to sustain a leadership advantage, organizations must give leaders targets that reflect where the business is going—not just where it is today. So, now in this climate of survival and uncertainty, has the economic crisis made my point moot? Is it folly to be focusing on long-range leadership continuity when we don't know what will happen next week?

I don't think so. In fact, I think it's now more important than it was before the economy melted down.

In the last few months, we’ve witnessed many CEOs paraded out of their corner offices. Did they fail the organization, or did the organization fail to select a leader who could not only guide great momentum, but also protect the core of the business in a crisis?

Protect the core. A mandate pregnant with questions.  What is the core?  Your products? Your infrastructure? Your customers? Your people? I have my opinions, but whatever you decide, ask yourself who will stand guard over it. It's true that few of us can divine the new realities that will emerge from this crisis. But we are not powerless to position ourselves for the comeback.

Desperation may tempt (even force) us to see wisdom in short-term thinking.  It feels good to survive when death is the alternative.

But this is not the time to look away from leadership capability. To poise yourself for a quick rebound when the economy turns again, this is the time to look closer.

Matt Paese is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for  Development Dimensions International (DDI).