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| Volume 8, Issue 9 |
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In This Issue:
 The 7 toughest questions (and how to handle them)
Are hidden cultural roadblocks holding you back?
Help new hires succeed
Coaching can-do
 If you’re open to growth, you tend to grow
 Creating a positive professional image
 Managers with superpowers can transform a business
The outstanding performance professional
 Gas Price Crisis Could Revolutionize U.S. Workplace
 10 ways to help ease employees' pain at the pump
It's time to revamp the way you calculate turnover
 Meeting of minds not mindless meetings
 Using employees' E-mail against them
Health: The World's Longevity Secrets
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The 7 toughest questions (and how to handle them)
Managesmarter Classic: In the professional world, tough questions are as fundamental as paper clips and staples.
Starting with the employment interview and ranging through staff meetings, management reviews, informal briefings and formal presentations, almost every business encounter has the potential to draw dangerous crossfire. And in many circles, inquisitorial
grilling is as much a part of the business ritual as a handshake to seal a deal. Why do business people ask tough questions? Because they are mean-spirited? Perhaps. Because they want to test your mettle? Maybe. More likely it's because when you make a
presentation, you assume the role of a solicitor. In that role, you ask those you solicit (i.e., opposite parties, target audiences) to change. Most people are resistant to change and so they kick the tires. You are the tires. How then to avoid
damage from the kicks? How do you survive slings and arrows unleashed? How do you handle tough questions in the line of fire? The savage seven During my 40 years in the communication trade, which has ranged from control rooms in the CBS Broadcast Center
in Manhattan to the boardrooms of some of America's most prestigious corporations, I have heard — and have asked — tens of thousands of tough questions. But all of them
can be distilled into just seven types. [Here they are and here's how to handle them...]
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Are hidden cultural roadblocks holding you back?
INCENTIVE online "Culture Shift" columnist Paul Levesque is an author, seminar leader and public speaker with two decades' experience as an international business consultant specializing in the connection between employee motivation
and customer satisfaction. He is a senior consultant with Boston-based Novations Inc., and is also founder and CEO of Customer Focus Breakthroughs Inc.
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Not even the most motivated workforce in the world can get past these fatal—and hidden—cultural barriers.
Success in business is virtually impossible unless all employees are aligned toward a common objective that feels equally meaningful to all of them. But cultural alignment does not guarantee success in itself—there are still pitfalls to avoid, obstacles to
overcome. And whereas cultural alignment (and its absence) are both highly visible at a glance, many of the most treacherous cultural barriers are harder to see, if not outright invisible. What follows is a summary of the three major types of hidden
cultural roadblocks—the three with the greatest potential to bring any organization's advance to a standstill...
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Help new hires succeed
Caela Farren, Ph.D., is CEO of MasteryWorks. With 30 years of pioneering in the field of career and talent management, MasteryWorks brings wisdom, know-how, and practical and easy-to-communicate solutions for today's pressing talent requirements.
The company shifts the thinking of leaders and engages the resources of champions to align organization strategies with individual aspirations.
Chances are, that new boss in the office could be gone…before you know it. A recent survey by the Institute of Executive Development and Alexcel Group found that after two years, nearly one-third of senior-level executives who joined new companies do not
perform well enough to keep their jobs. This is the same fate for 20 percent of bosses who are promoted from within. And the success rates for new hires across the board are not much better:
- 22 percent of staff turnover occurs in the first 45 days of employment. (The Wynhurst Group)
- 46 percent of rookies wash out in their first 18 months. (Leadership IQ)
- Companies that leave executive onboarding to chance experience failure rates in excess of 50 percent when it comes to retaining new executive talent. (Egon Zehnder International, 2007)
[What MANAGERS can do: New hires, like everyone else, want to succeed. Managers need to be coached to put their expectations in...]
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Coaching can-do
Getting a little help from those who've been there before—assuming they actually know what they're doing—can come in handy.
Now there's evidence that, in addition to the weary worker receiving the tips, coaching is a boost to the whole company. Coaching used to carry a stigma because it was more frequently directed at problem employees. Today, it's more likely a sign the
employee is on the fast track, and the organization is serious about raising performance levels and developing talent, according to a global study of 1,030 managers and executives commissioned by American Management Association (AMA) and
conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity. Here are some of the study's key findings...
Read the article. Back to top
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If you’re open to growth, you tend to grow
WHY do some people reach their creative potential in business while other equally talented peers don’t?
After three decades of painstaking research, the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that the answer to the puzzle lies in how people think about intelligence and talent. Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever
going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed mind-set.” Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a “growth mind-set.”Guess which ones prove to be most innovative over time.“Society is obsessed
with the idea of talent and genius and people who are ‘naturals’ with innate ability,” says Ms. Dweck, who is known for research that crosses the boundaries of personal, social and developmental psychology.“People who believe in the power of talent tend
not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.”In this case,
nurture wins out over nature just about every time. While some managers apply these principles every day, too many others instead believe that hiring the best and the
brightest from top-flight schools guarantees corporate success. The problem is that...
Read the article. Back to top
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Creating a positive professional image
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Laura Morgan Roberts is an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School. "Members of negatively stereotyped identity groups may experience an additional form of identity threat known as "devaluation." |
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"Most people use a variety of strategies for managing impressions of their social identities."
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As HBS professor Laura Morgan Roberts sees it, if you aren't managing your own professional image, others are.
"People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace," she says. "It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories
about who you are and what you can accomplish." There are plenty of books telling you how to "dress for success" and control your body language. But keeping on top of your personal traits is only part of the story of managing your professional image, says
Roberts. You also belong to a social identity group—African American male, working mother—that brings its own stereotyping from the people you work with, especially in today's diverse workplaces. You can put on a suit and cut your hair to improve your
appearance, but how do you manage something like skin color? Roberts will present her research, called "Changing Faces: Professional Image Construction in Diverse
Organizational Settings," in the October issue of the Academy of Management Review. [Here are the key findings in this HBS exclusive interview...
Q: What are the steps individuals should take to manage their professional image?
A: First, you must realize that if you aren't managing your own professional image, someone else is.
People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace. It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you
are and what you can accomplish. Be the author of your own identity. Take a strategic, proactive approach to managing your image...]
Read the article. Back to top
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Managers with superpowers can transform a business
Neglecting any employees' needs can be detrimental to an organization's success, but recognition can dramatically improve employee performance. A 2007 Maritz employee
engagement poll identified six different supervisor personality profiles and their effects on employee engagement and customer loyalty.
The Caring Mentor stood out at encouraging high employee-performance levels. Some 81 percent of respondents identified the Caring Mentor as a managerial Superman because this type of manager possesses similar characteristics to the American cultural icon.
Caring Mentors are highly relational and greatly appreciated by their direct reports. Honesty is one of their strongest attributes. They are cheerful, generous, friendly and flexible. Employees under Caring Mentors have the strongest affinity for
customers. Also, employees with Caring Mentor bosses are more likely to stay with a company long term and recommend their company to others. Unfortunately, only 26 percent of employees have Caring Mentors, which means 74 percent of employees have a
less than ideal manager. The most common type of boss isn't a villain. This person falls in the Respectable Professional category for 29 percent of employees. Employees
view them with respect and believe them to be honest and reliable. However, Respectable Professionals are...
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The outstanding performance professional
What makes an outstanding performance professional?
This is the question we at HSA Learning & Performance Solutions posed to a number of recognized experts during interviews at a variety of conferences. They worked in specialty areas such as human resource management, human resource development,
organizational development, organizational effectiveness, performance consulting and learning and development. After sorting and collating responses, what emerged was a remarkable consensus about 10 characteristics shared by exceptional talent and HR
leaders. The following 10 characteristics of outstanding workplace performance specialists detail the value they can bring to both organizational clients and the talented performers who make up the organizations' workforces...
Read the article. Back to top
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Gas price crisis could cevolutionize U.S. workplace
Soaring gas prices top economic and political agendas, so it’s natural that they also are a topic of conversation at the Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference & Exposition in Chicago.
The buzz portends a fundamental change in the U.S. workplace, according to John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm. Challenger overheard some people talking about their pain at the pump while riding in
an elevator at the show. The thrust of the chat: “How are we going to get around this gas situation?” Such worry is more than a transient concern.“The country is coming to terms with permanently higher gas prices,” Challenger says. Employees are hurting, and
companies are responding by offering compressed work schedules, four-day weeks, telecommuting, gas cards and car-pooling. These are more than short-term fixes, Challenger says. They are the beginning of a revolution in the office that will result
in productivity being the central value of work, rather the number of hours logged by employees. They also dovetail with other trends like...
Read the article. Back to top
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10 ways to help ease employees' pain at the pump
Nearly a third of HR pros in a recent survey reported knowing at least one employee who quit in the past year because the high price of gas made the commute too expensive.
Some organizations are addressing the driving dilemma—and revving up their retention programs—by pushing telework and shorter workweeks. But other employers take an even more direct approach: paying for employees’ gas...
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It's time to revamp the way you calculate turnover
There’s a big difference between losing three slugs versus three stars in your department within a month.
Yet, at most organizations, those losses would be calculated the same—as an overall percentage of employees—when figuring turnover rate. The problem: Such a simple metric doesn’t account for performance differences among departing employees...
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Meeting of minds not mindless meetings
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Max McKeown works as a strategic adviser for four of the five most admired companies in the world. Europe's unorthodox answer to Tom Peters, he is also a a well-known speaker on subjects including innovation and competitive advantage. |
Many meetings are not dialogues.
They do not invite contributions. Their style discourages openness. Their structure does little to capture collective and individual opinions. Many brainstorming sessions follow the form but not the function. You have the flip charts, coloured pens, post-it
notes, tea, coffee, and buffet lunch, but where is the collective buzz? Where is the startling exchange of insights? Here's my recipe for spicing up meetings and making them matter...
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Using employees' E-mail against them
Two Bear Stearns executives learned a hard lesson this week:
If you're going to say something inappropriate, don't write it in an e-mail. An online exchange between fund managers Matthew Tannin and Ralph Cioffi questioned the performance of certain funds in which they were investing clients' money. But their
public comments told a different story, and now those e-mails are the smoking gun in the civil and criminal cases against them. If convicted of conspiracy and securities fraud, the two could face jail time and heavy fines. Will employees ever learn that
anything they write in an e-mail can and will be used against them? "This stuff is obtainable, and it's difficult to deny once it's printed out," says Josh Bowers, a labor lawyer in Washington, D.C. Of course, we're not encouraging you to behave
illegally offline, either. But the risk of getting caught online is high. Employees send hundreds of e-mails daily from their work computer, and experts say they too often broach subjects that should be avoided. The most common? Sex. Many employees
write e-mails or forward jokes with sexual overtones. On the one hand, forwarded jokes are usually meant to be harmless. The danger comes, however...
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Health: The world's longevity secrets
It may have seemed like good news when federal officials announced last month that U.S. life expectancy had jumped four months and, for the first time, surpassed 78 years.
But forget about 78. What if someone said that you--not some future generation--should be able to live into your 90s in relatively good health?...
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