How Virtual Leadership Differs

Author: Dave Crisp

18 Dec

More discussion has surfaced recently about managing virtual teams and workers. Clearly this is a growing reality in many organizations. In many cases it will have snuck up on us as more people are equipped with computers and communication software both at home and remote office locations. It poses some challenges.

A number of years ago this tended to mean one or two workers working the majority of their time from home or another off-site location (car, hotel room, temporary office). Sorting out best principles evolved so now many organizations have explicit guidelines for this.

In a real sense, a leader might be in charge of a number of employees working remotely, which by definition was a virtual team, but the emphasis tended to be on rules for the employees. Measurement systems that a leader might use to judge productivity tended to be secondary, but important. It was assumed leaders would keep in touch frequently as most seemed a bit skeptical anyway and could be counted on to want to keep close tabs on workers.

As time passed technology made most of us capable of working remotely at least part time with few special arrangements. It also enabled more people to tie into virtual meetings via various types of collaboration programs and online tools. The emphasis shifted away from remote workers as special cases that had to be monitored to an assumption that entire teams might be assembled from workers who are located somewhere other than where the leader is or teams in one location being led by a leader located somewhere else. Technology enabled ‘somewhere else’ to mean literally anywhere on the planet, so rules about attending weekly in-office meetings often no longer fit.

The literature filled with new concerns such as people working at home on off hours. Some unions are even bargaining for on-call premiums for anyone who carries a company cell phone especially since these are now small computers with email and more. But beyond that leadership questions have been multiplying for more complex situations.

Some excellent guides exist now for leaders of true virtual teams such as Jon Wagner’s 3^rd edition, just published with Russ Milland, “The Building Effective Virtual and Remote Teams Handbook” (note: although I haven’t met Jon as far as I recall, he’s a fellow member of Strategic Capability Network). How should leaders behave differently (or should they) if they rarely meet team members and conduct full group meetings and routine one-on-ones via technology? These guys have experience and have studied what works best, but can busy managers really implement 160+ pages of advice?

Other ways of looking at similar concerns and some of the newer evolving technologies and methods that one could consider are captured by Kyle Lagunas, the HR Analyst at Software Advice in a recent article. In his blog post, he discusses the challenges of managing with an “open door” or a version of the much recommended “managing by walking around” when dealing with virtual teams.

Suffice it to say the complete solution almost certainly hasn’t been written yet, nor have all the questions been discovered. It would be nice to think office politics can be overcome with effective processes, clearly set out, but human nature being what it is what happens when a group of employees conspire to rid themselves of an unwanted virtual leader or when individuals plot to become the favorite or divert the project or more? With a growing emphasis discussed in earlier HR Strategy posts about the need for managers to learn to confront each other and argue constructively to get disagreements out in the open, the chances for misunderstandings, shunning of people we don’t find congenial or cooperative and all those other natural, but naturally disruptive behaviors would seem to find greater latitude to cause trouble or at least tremendous inefficiency and ineffectiveness.

Maybe we need a few realistic novels or screenplays about the pitfalls, dangers and solutions as well as sound advice that not everyone will have the time or skill to implement. I’m sure there’s also a huge opportunity for some comedy in all this – “The (Virtual) Office” perhaps.

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Filed under: 3 Strategic - Thinking, Business/Strategy, Coaching over Command Leadership, Fix The Jerks, Leaders of the Future

Sorting Out Value from Hype

Author: Dave Crisp

4 Dec

Is it me or is there an increasing deluge of workplace advice to leaders? Of course I read this stuff routinely for work, but the sheer volume is staggering. Take just one issue of Talent Management’s email newsletter a couple of weeks ago, with some pros and cons.

One might think the topics would have to do with succession planning systems or the like and the lead article (from their magazine) fits. The HR guy for Sean “Diddy” Combs, Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group, talks about talent audits, identifying hipos (high potentials) and, interestingly, career pathing among their 300 employees to ensure engagement and prevent poaching by rival entertainment organizations. That’s interesting and a great overview of talent management in brief as a unified, centrally branded approach that many companies would do well to emulate. Good for them for poaching a chief talent officer from a “global advertising media company” (I should say so – Young and Rubicam) – wow, what were they doing wrong?

So far so good, but it’s tough to find unique items like that every month or week. Next is a plea to help newly hired executives craft a leadership message – echoing others’ advice that being great presenters is now almost a prerequisite for leaders. Scary, but likely valid – and we might do well to help new leaders out with this. Again a relatively unusual bit of advice to ponder, a good second lead.

Skip the next report of a survey showing bomb squad technician is the scariest US job (edging out stunt person and high school teacher – maybe it wasn’t as difficult when I was in the latter role early on since I don’t recall shaking in my boots). Then an article on the need to convert annual reviews to on-going feedback to enhance performance. Not new, but true, followed by a pitch to get more value than damage from 360s by focusing them on development opportunities rather than (negative) assessment. OK, we’re still in talent management if not terribly fresh territory.

Skipping to popular stories of the week and archived favorites we see: a new look at engagement (not so new), how to create a solid working relationship with your boss, lessons from the ousted Tribune CEO (as noted in earlier posts here: a startling example of dreadful behavior), then: backstabbing bosses followed by building a civilized workplace (definitely some themes here for leaders, but do we really need this again and again).

But the one that caught my eye most was ‘Man’agers Best Friend: Sniff Out New Management Skills.

Oh my.

OK, I read these for my spouse who’s violently allergic to dogs and others in her family who are terrified of them even as adults because they had to avoid them as kids. Of course there’s an argument it can reduce stress in the workplace (for the dog’s owner and dog fans, that is), but it rarely rates a mention that it can severely increase stress and illness for others, to the point they quit or don’t take the job. Writers of such articles tend to pooh-pooh “a few” oddballs who are fearful of pets, but isn’t that a bit like saying ‘only some people get sick from cigarette smoke, so to heck with them, it reduces stress for smokers?’

How is this worthwhile Talent Management advice?

Well it turns out we can also learn major leadership lessons from dogs, too, to paraphrase: “patience, listening, forgiveness, minimal ego, minimal judgment, learning how to read people and how to be more open – a wonderful mirror on how others read your cues – just by watching how your dog reacts and recognizes.”

OK, I’m off the rails on the last bits. Are we to take one fond owner’s word for it that she can, and therefore that we should be able to, see these qualities in dogs. If you love animals and anthropomorphize their behavior, perhaps this is what you might think you notice reasonably consistently, but if you tend to see dogs behaving when afraid or over-excited, as unpredictable dangers that might bite unexpectedly or jump on you with muddy paws, claws and energetic licks that, to some, seem like germy opportunities to catch diseases, I don’t think you’ll be noticing patience or listening (as you cry, “down rover”). And dogs with muzzles? Somehow it’s hard to see them as patient.

By the way, I’d just as soon not work for a boss who took his or her leadership lessons from these creatures who probably know how to behave just fine in their appropriate habitats, but perhaps not so much at work, thanks.

At least it’s different. Oh the topics we have to call on to fill publications continually with new stuff. Aren’t we criticized in HR for always having a ‘program flavor of the month?’ There’s some inconsistency here.

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Filed under: 3 Strategic - Thinking, Fix The Jerks, Human Resources (HR), NewsLetters

Time to Put HR Under a Microscope?

Author: Dave Crisp

27 Nov

OK, if you follow HR issues at all you have to read an article with that title and the tag line: ‘we have to drive the HR professionals into making more strategic decisions’ (that’s the clip HRPA’s daily headline newsletter posted).

In short, CFO magazine published this report a week or so ago that makes one a bit dizzy. It aims to summarize a presentation given by the CEO of Taleo (the Talent Management software company) at a US Conference Board event on Human Capital Metrics. The report seems to be an effort to pull out the highlights, which include a blast at companies using too many contract workers (getting less engaged employees) and the need to localize HR programs when operating globally rather than ‘drop in an American or Australian solution consultant’ into China, for instance. In the latter case, the reason pulled out by the reporter is ‘you need a local person who speaks the language and understands the cost structure.’ Admittedly these are among the reasons for wanting local help, but surely from an HR view, there are quite a few others – understand the culture, the local HR regulations, what motivates local people and more. By this time you can see a mish mash of partial ideas and wording shaping up.

From here we launch into a clip of comments about the need to use social media better, emphasizing that referrals result in employees who typically stay longer.

So far I’m following the reporter, a little buzzed by the quick shifts, but still puzzling about the title ‘HR under microscope’ and waiting for the major criticism. I’m guessing the headline is due to an editor creating something to sell. But no, there’s more.

An interesting segue takes us through an interesting comment that HR can’t be more than an administrative function if it runs on a staffing ratio of 1 HR pro to 350 employees when (in the CEO’s reported opinion) it started at more like 1:60.

Then the blast arrives. Asking reasonably whether HR at these large ratios can be expected to know more about talent than the manager of 10 people, it concludes: “Yet in exit interviews, employees say the number one reason why they leave is that they [don't like] their manager. It doesn’t make sense. We have to drive the HR professional into making more strategic decisions.” Wouldn’t logic suggest from this we need to convince senior management teams to make more strategic decisions about how to staff HR?

Wow. I’m not sure what the point is here, but given that it made it into the tag line for the article, I’m sure it must seem important. Let’s see – HR doesn’t have the resources to get properly close to talent issues, so it falls to managers who are doing a lousy job. In some way that doesn’t make sense so we have to drive – great concept there: “drive” HR professionals to make more strategic decisions. Would that be strategic decisions to hire themselves more staff? Is that their fault? Or is it that perhaps they really could create a better environment at their 350:1 skinny department ratios if they just tried harder? Or am I being paranoid?

All this ignores analyses from years back that HR staff ratios vary greatly due to the structure of the organization as well as sheer volume decisions (you typically need more HR per employee if you have 600 units spread geographically than if you have all, say, 25,000 employees under one roof like a big plant). But of course what really catches everyone is the facile move to turn this into blame for HR’s lack of strategic decision-making. Get the whip, let’s drive ‘em. By this point I’m not sure exactly who said what, but the result certainly seems to have ended up twisted in a familiar way. Sorry we can’t score one for CFO Magazine’s effort to make an ally of HR and mitigate inter-departmental silos. Except for the punch lines it sounded for a minute there like we were on the right track.

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If Only All CEOs Believed

Author: Dave Crisp

20 Nov

When three CEOs presented their views recently at SCNetwork that HR is a valuable contributor at the most senior level of their organizations someone commented there wasn’t much new. I disagree. It’s not that we heard earth-shattering new techniques, but we did see something new in three CEOs who expect and insist HR should not only be at the senior table (our former peak aim), but should be challenging the other executives at that level, the CEO him- or herself and managers throughout the company to step up to higher levels of understanding and behavior with respect to HR issues. That’s a bit different from the usual “of course we value HR.”

When the CEOs broke it down, they were unanimous this won’t happen unless the CEO personally drives it. They’re aware managers in lower ranks feel quite justified in viewing HR as a purely transactional role – hiring, firing, disciplining and generally keeping up with the paperwork, the regulations and ‘all that stuff’ that line managers say they have no time for. That’s on a good day. These CEOs want to turn that around and help lower ranking managers develop greater appreciation for their own and HR’s strategic role. It’s interesting how they all seemed to be using similar key ways to go about this.

The two CEOs who hadn’t had direct experience in support roles expressed their surprise at discovering when they reached the CEO chair that they immediately started wanting strategic input from HR. Who else partners with the CEO to improve teamwork at the senior table? How they are expected to partner is also enlightening.

Although I’ve heard and read plenty in the last few years about the need for tough conversations as a regular diet, I was surprised at the vehemence with which this group supported the concept, one also mentioning Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team, which expands the same basic concepts more specifically toward team development. It’s true we might expect CEOs chosen for a panel to be on their best behavior with respect to HR, especially with their HR directors sitting in the audience, but asking them to challenge executives in such specific ways is new. Of course we’re looking at a select group, but one whose members are serious about engaging HR effectively.

A couple commented there isn’t enough tough feedback coming at the senior team from around the company and that ‘maybe we haven’t made it safe enough.’ The move to encourage constructive confrontation of issues in tough conversations is key to developing teams and turning them into high performing leadership groups, but not many CEOs are ready or willing to face up to that. They know they need HR to help that happen with fairness and balance, a word they mentioned frequently.

When asked about values, they were unanimous about their importance. Again this wasn’t new to an audience of converts in the HR field as the grounding for high performance, but two things stood out. These individuals are serious about making their values work to the point of insisting they and every manager in the company be called out if they weren’t walking the talk. That’s still truly rare, although getting more widespread as the news leaks that this is the way to financial results and customer satisfaction.

As an aside, it was interesting they are quite happy to promote values with t-shirts, mugs, posters, handout cards among the more common tools that have been called into question or made the butt of jokes. Either they’re too new at the game to realize this stuff is perceived by many as hokey or those who see it that way are missing the point – it all contributes – if, but only if, the CEO backs it up and is willing to be held accountable to live those values along with everyone else.

That of course led to the million dollar challenge question – will you fire a top producer who doesn’t live up to the values. To a person all three not only said they would, but gave examples of where they had (thanking their HR people for advice to treat long service well on the way out the door and do things right, but nevertheless, do them). To paraphrase one, ‘if you let stuff like this go, you’re just expanding the problem and undermining everything you’re working toward.’ That’s new despite having heard so many times before, as one said, “if the CEO doesn’t get it..”

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Filed under: 3 Strategic - Thinking, 4 Honest - Finding Reality, Fix The Jerks, Human Resources (HR), Leaders of the Future, Learning Organization

Can HR Executives Become CEOs?

Author: Dave Crisp

13 Nov

Following up on last week it seems appropriate to ask if HR execs can reasonably become CEOs. Everyone sees a slur against HR executives in the fact that few have so far ended up as CEOs. Interesting that when we note not enough women in CEO roles, today most of us don’t blame women as much as companies. Similar ideas apply to HR execs regardless of gender. HRPA called attention to a feature article in HR Magazine from the UK that at first glance seems to cover the subject thoroughly. But we need to look twice. To start with the idea that “few HR execs become CEOs” has to be by comparison, since the truth is few people of any sort become CEOs. In this case, perhaps the measure is few in comparison to CFOs who rise so frequently that nearly 50% of CEOs today seem to come from that function – perhaps not a surprise in a time of economic upheaval despite the fact that it appears many financially-oriented executives were at the bottom of our recent problems to begin with.

You have to love the article’s opening line, reminiscent of Fast Company’s “Why We Hate HR” – “Would it be a strategic, forward-thinking utopia [if HR took on the CEO role] – or a backwater that focused on tissues, teabags and time and attendance?”

I think this describes part of the problem – along the lines of saying the biggest disability so-called disabled people have is the opinions of the abled. One of the biggest disabilities of HR executives is the outright desire of other executives to paint them as concerned primarily about “tissues, teabags and time and attendance.” If true, it’s almost inevitably because that’s what the CEO and the organization demand and limit HR to. More often it’s what others want everyone to believe so they don’t have to accept suggestions from HR or face them as competitors for senior roles.

The article goes on to point out that few HR people end up as CEOs of big operations, but some do, of whom some make mistakes – what a surprise – ignoring the fact these mistakes are similar to the mistakes other appointees make – over-spending, etc. In the article this is naturally attributed to lack of “business acumen” (but no comment about how many other CEOs make the same mistakes, presumably showing an equal lack of business acumen).

Then follow some lengthy bits about how necessary it is for career HR people who aspire to CEO roles to get some profit and loss experience in some other function. That certainly fits with today’s view that leadership development for all types of top roles requires rotation through a series of assignments judiciously chosen to provide perspective and experience in dealing with varied types of situations including failure, turnarounds, P&L, functional and more. Quite a few organizations now see experience in the HR role as critical for future leaders who otherwise may not be aware of the huge scope and importance of this territory and its many potential pitfalls. So the article wavers on to a somewhat shaky lack of conclusion about whether HR people can or can’t expect to succeed as CEOs, with more examples of those who have than those who haven’t (it is an HR magazine article after all).

One interesting aside from the main thrust is the question of whether they don’t get to be CEO because they don’t want to. Again one might well ask if this is true of other department heads as well. Everyone sees CEO tenure tending to be short, CEOs being criticized and fired for nearly every variation of mistake it’s possible to make and the incredible hours and other commitments CEOs are expected to make, often to the detriment of family and having a life in general. Of course there’s always a line up to be CEO, but never the entire or even majority of the executive team.

My guess is that many HR VPs get to see up close just how complex, difficult to master and ultimately thankless the CEO job really is (unless you consider huge severance to be a form of thanks, which is arguably a cynical, but useful perspective). By contrast I believe a great many CFOs imagine they could do better than their current boss because they believe they understand what business is really all about much more – ie: in their view MONEY. Unfortunately success isn’t that simple, a fact some companies are recognizing to their great advantage. It even includes tissues, tea bags and time and attendance at time. It doesn’t hurt a CEO to understand those.

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Filed under: 3 Strategic - Thinking, Building A Career, Coaching Yourself, Fix The Jerks, Leaders of the Future

Respect, Good Leadership, (Ethics) and Quality People

Author: Dave Crisp

25 Sep

What issues rank among the top four or five that create high engagement?

Guess what Mercers and SMITH magazine just found from a survey of readers as reported in Canadian HR Reporter? 7000 people entered their Six Words About Work contest and these emerged. As they point out these four have remained constant despite the recession and continuing turbulence.

As far back as the dark ages (just before the dot.com bubble burst and was accused of busting the War For Talent) around y2k, I started using the top five that AON found in one of their massive surveys – and guess what? They found the same items in the same order, with just a little more definition of what those ideas mean.

We could enter this in the “how many times do we have to prove the same thing” contest, but why carp at reinforcing what we all need to keep in mind about the modern workforce? Good times or bad, employees want respect, which incidentally reflects instantly in leaders’ stance on work-life balance, which is why that issue ranks so high on employees’ want lists. If you respect people, you support them taking the time they need, when they need it, to get life in order.

Good leadership is about challenging people to be the best they can be and supporting them in their striving to succeed (and gain promotions, which is where the bigger salary increases come from).

Ethics, which the new survey can’t seem to find a word for, includes everyone being honest, but especially the pride employees want to feel that a company is delivering a decent product or service for the money, something that came out loud and clear in this survey. It slides into AON’s finding that employees want “fairness” which included fair rewards (the good do better than the poor performers) and fair in relation to what other companies pay, but also fair to other stakeholders and customers.

Quality people is about training and supporting staff who can thus deliver those good products and services as part of a team. as virtually all surveys find. All four or five, depending on how you count them, wrap into each other.

You can’t leave one or more out and expect the whole to hold together. Engagement comes when all these are ticking along smoothly most of the time and leaders are walking the talk as well as routinely talking about it in lofty vision and values statements.

And then along comes Yahoo, a modern, up-to-date company enlightened enough to hire a solid woman as CEO. and then. oops, as of early September, fire her. over the phone. Ever want to know a highly visible way to show your employees how much you do or don’t respect people or treat them fairly? This will generally go down as one way to make the point unmistakably.

Does one blunder invalidate everything you’ve put in place before that? Generally not, but if you can treat your CEO this way, I’d be looking over my shoulder as an employee for sure. and maybe tidying up my resume ‘just in case.’ If you want your employees thinking that way, just violate those four or five seemingly basic, but apparently challenging principles that we all know, that operate in good times and bad. Do we need to hear them proven again? Apparently some major operators do.

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Filed under: 2 Positive - Feelings, 4 Honest - Finding Reality, Coaching Others, Fix The Jerks, Leaders of the Future, Learning Organization

Can the US Get Its Leadership Act Together?

Author: Dave Crisp

4 Sep

In the explosively gyrating markets following S&P’s decision to downgrade the US debt rating we don’t want to miss the most startling reason they gave.
. that US leadership has demonstrated it couldn’t get its act together effectively enough to ensure stability for the future.

Of course they fell back on a financial result they didn’t like as well – saying another $4 billion should have been cut from spending, but the headline reason, which we all need to pay attention to is the leadership issue.

By contrast hardly anyone blinked when Moody’s cut Japan’s rating three weeks later because that decision was based almost purely on financial concerns. Ho hum. With the US, now all pension and investment companies are looking at what S&P’s action means to their management of funds. No one imagined the US could be shaken off the top rating. A different anchor for investment safety has to be considered. and for a reason that sounds like a long term systemic flaw in their government process – the dependable capitalist democratic ideal – not just a temporary over-spending problem. Ouch.

It’s ironic that the US currently has perhaps the best democratic leader since Abe Lincoln, but he’s saddled with impossibly high hopes from an electorate hungry for jobs and an economy seriously damaged by eight years of another unwinnable war started and pursued by ‘the other guys’ who poured unbelievable amounts of cash down a drain massively bigger than Vietnam ever was.

So we have an electorate, no doubt tired of all the wrangling, but desperate to find a fix. and a lot of opportunists taking advantage of the intensity to present themselves and their narrow interests as the savior. We also have a political system with such embedded checks and balances it won’t allow even four years of consistent policies to take root. Unlike the Canadian and British system which allows one party to organize things if they develop a majority, the US seems almost guaranteed not to be able to put together a program without it being destroyed by opposition between, as well as at, elections.

What does every politician say the moment they’re elected? “Let’s put aside our differences; I’ve been elected to govern ALL the people.” Many try, but interest groups adhere to no such principles. They can stand back and bash away at their points of view no matter how tiny a minority they are. and should they have clout in some other area of government, they think nothing of simply attempting to block every plan.

When we look at business leadership, we’re reminded of Jim Collins’ finding in his book Good to Great that the first requirement for leaders is to ‘get the right people on the bus’ and, by extension, the wrong ones off. How a leader does this is critical so as not to alienate and paralyze the remainder with fear, but still sooner or later, lining up those who want to work toward the goal and moving those who don’t somewhere else is fundamental. In government you don’t have that luxury despite the bigots’ common admonition that ‘if they don’t like it here they should go home.’ Obama seems able to develop a common plan, but how to prevent a few from scuttling every agreement?

In any case, it appears the US will have to spearhead a new model that sustains efforts at consensus or compromise or face the critics worst predictions that they may be slowly losing their dominant position in the world. mostly due to inability of anyone to gel anything done on any issue at all.

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Filed under: 3 Strategic - Thinking, Business/Strategy, Current Affairs, Fix The Jerks, Leaders of the Future

Leadership Development Starts at the Top

Author: Dave Crisp

19 Aug

It was great to read comments in the Retail Council of Canada’s journal, Canadian Retailer, by the new President of Black’s Photography, Ethel Taylor, about how they went about developing a “new Black’s.” She made an observation well worth repeating that I hadn’t heard in just that way before – that most senior leadership teams who want to improve leadership in their organizations buy training for middle management, while in fact, it should begin at the top, with improvement by the senior executives first.

When I think back to situations I’ve been in this is all too true. So when you read reports like Wallace Immen’s piece for CTV on the poor state of leadership development in Canada (which is pretty similar to all you read about the US and even worse in other countries), you have to think there are very few executive teams asking where the process needs to start.

Black’s seems happy with their results and it’s great to see an organization attribute future potential success to a thorough and well thought out leadership development program with KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and actual follow up planned. Two days a month over four months for key leaders makes for a good learning pattern judging from the programs I’ve worked with – enough concentrated time in each session and enough ‘settling’ and application time between them.

Even more important than the time spent by individual leaders furthering the own skills has to be the overall impact within an organization’s environment when everyone knows this is going on and everyone is watching to see who actually improves.

The peer and co-worker ‘pressure’ (really, the attention everyone will pay) is a key element that ensures the program is actually applied and begins to make enough of a difference to stick. Just knowing the new behaviors are expected eases the path for leaders who want to try acting differently and the reinforcement they’re bound to see in happier and more productive employees has a much greater chance of making changes permanent. A little icing on the cake is knowing the senior executives went through similar processes and should be demonstrating similarly improved behavior themselves. Lapses will be highly visible!

Getting momentum is a critical element to making such programs effective and these articles certainly suggest that it can be done, but that most aren’t doing it. yet. With the continuing spotlight on these sorts of innovation-boosting efforts, though, it seems inevitable that more companies will begin them.

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3 Elements of HR Strategy

Author: Dave Crisp

3 Jul

It’s a puzzle why so many critical elements of HR strategy seem to boil down to basic human failings such as poor attitudes or communication or character on the part of senior executives. Periodically I step back to try for perspective on why this is so in order to figure out how to improve things in practical ways. This inevitably leads to interesting thoughts interwoven in complex ways. It reinforces HR is undoubtedly the most complex element of management.

Essentially I’ve come to envision HR strategy as three legs of a stool, weakness in any one of which causes collapse or at least rickety performance. The first two are easy to describe, but not as easy to deliver. First, the “keep me out of jail” role that senior executives require of HR. It is tough to be expert in the myriad of legislative requirements – safety and health (now increasingly including mental health, harassment and less tangible ‘stress’ issues), union rules, employment standards governing so many aspects including lay-offs and other terminations that are also subject to fuzzy common law principles that take, in some cases, years to fully understand. Tied to this are now complicated rules and practices related to Sarbanes Oxley-type governance as well as standard ethics and lately other newer stakeholder and sustainability issues, some of which have been clear for decades while some evolve monthly. Altogether this is a vast area from within which any element may suddenly rear up and bite. Most of us try to keep up.

The second leg of the stool is increasingly recognized as important and poorly developed – measurement – entailing a far more expanded role for systems, databases, data management and technology and specialized positions inside and outside HR that can crunch numbers. Clearly these entail legislative and ethical requirements as well, but the emphasis is more and more on HR departments being able, working with IT and finance, to quantify and track vast amounts of information in measurable ways. We’ve been aware of this growing need for years. ‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure’ has been ignored by too many HR departments for far too long, but having said that, smaller departments will never be able to crunch the complex data true measurement requires – data senior executives would like to have before authorizing expenditures we need in HR. Fortunately the key is to follow what the advanced companies and researchers are discovering, adapt those principles and measure only what you need in order to reassure yourselves and your executives to emulate the best practices. Google’s HR teams and many business school research findings point the way, but we need to develop the skills. Legs one and two require HR department expertise above all.

The third leg is the ‘meat’ of HR strategy as most people think of it, both HR and line executives – what is now called Talent Management – developing leaders and other managers more effectively and moving them up and throughout the organization to maximize effectiveness of everyone and produce great results. This is where the majority of my thinking time goes because the other two are simpler – matters of ‘best information available’ and keeping up with evolving understanding of requirements.

The paradox is leg number three cannot be resolved by HR alone, nor even HR primarily. It doesn’t depend on expert knowledge as much as great common sense and empathetic understanding of people on the part of a large majority of executives in all functions. HR is powerless to fix itself to satisfy this requirement. They can lead, but it will take team effort and development across entire organizations.

Talent Management is the great puzzle because it depends on very simple stuff – things which the majority of key executives of an organization have to embrace wholeheartedly to make them work. And most don’t. yet. (Studies show only about 20% do and that isn’t critical mass in most organizations.)

This isn’t a matter of executives knowing that firing people without notice or severance in insulting ways will result in massive fines and payouts. Nor is it a matter of ever putting numbers on the screen to show them that spending on a benefit program will save millions in Workers Comp costs or absentee reduction or increased productivity. These are complicated to accumulate sufficient facts to prove, but the processes are, at their roots, mechanical and known.

By contrast, getting senior executives to understand they need to thank people every day and walk the talk to engage them. and meet regularly to seriously discuss giving up their best managers to let them move to other departments and learn to grow into well-rounded replacements for. themselves – those are not so complicated, but they are exceptionally hard to sell if the senior executives in question don’t view the world and people in the most positive, productive ways already. Their world views of these are likely fashioned early, from personal experience, biases learned from family and the school of hard knocks, and are not easy to identify and even harder to modify even if the executives in question wish to do so. We seriously need to find easier ways to get this across.

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Overcoming Character Flaws

Author: Dave Crisp

25 Jun

Is it possible to improve things like character, a perennial question!? Like most challenges in human relations, leadership and HR, the answer is the same – yes, we can change but it’s slow and not every gap can be completely filled. But most important of all it takes us back to the old joke: How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?

We keep stumbling over this. The answer, of course, in its humorous way is: Just one, but the light bulb really has to want to change.

This is the crux of coaching, of training, of performance improvement programs and all sorts of change efforts: the people who need to change have to want to change. It begins with they have to see the need for change. So feedback becomes incredibly important for several reasons. First it shows the need, second it shows progress of lack of it now that the person is engaged and working to change and third it suggests where to try next whenever the effort to change isn’t working.

It’s probably safe to say most executives do want to change to some degree. We don’t get to the top without recognizing along the way that we need better skills, that some of what we do isn’t working, etc. But we probably would prefer to change invisibly, not publicly have to admit flaws or have them drawn to our attention. We’d all prefer to anticipate and make the changes before anyone really notices we need to. Unfortunately that isn’t always possible. So we’re caught in what is for some a dilemma. To change effectively we need honest feedback, but we would prefer that no one notice our flaws, in which case no honest feedback would be possible. Of course we know people have opinions and observations, but how to get at them without facing the scary feedback process remains for many a great puzzle.

The solution is fairly simple. Ask for feedback. Steel yourself for what you may hear. Make it as painless and worry free as possible for those you ask – don’t wince, snarl, deny or retaliate, even if retaliation is (in your view) minor sarcasm or push back. Thank the person, ask for more whenever they can think of anything and keep smiling while you leave the scene nicely without betraying your inner turmoil or upset. Feedback, even good stuff, is often upsetting and feels off-topic or unfair or all too painfully true. Whatever your reactions, they are the things you CAN keep to yourself while you keep smiling and treat people positively.

Change ultimately is up to us. If we communicate subtly or otherwise that it’s dangerous or unpleasant to provide us with feedback it shouldn’t surprise us when we don’t get it (or only get the whitewashed version).

So, can character be improved? You bet. But like my efforts to stop griping loudly while driving the car when my spouse is present, it isn’t easy. It was painful for both of us. Neither wanted to fight, but we most certainly did on many more occasions than should have been necessary. I even made little notes to myself (somewhat sarcastic at times). One, partly hidden at the bottom of the cup holder said, “Just don’t talk at all.” Making notes turns out to be a helpful step actually. This marked the point at which I made the decision that I had to be the one to resolve the “problem” (whether I truly bought that it was my problem or not at that particular point – I could hold onto that – maybe not all my problem, but I will solve it come hell or high water!) Slowly I began to anticipate my outbursts and head them off. After a couple of years at it, I can see I’m calmer overall and probably a better driver for it, but it wouldn’t have been a good idea to tell me that at the time. The feedback I needed most was simply to understand it made my spouse upset and nothing I could say would change that. I’m happy to report we now take long drive trips together without her threatening never to get in the car with me again.

How many staff relationships would hold up to this sort of stress remains to be seen, but honest feedback like this at work is possible if people respect each other and want to keep working together. It’s rare though and will remain so until bosses start making employees feel more comfortable in saying what they see.

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