Ben Nash Articles

More Mangers Are Saying: “Show Me The Evidence” - Click To Read Article
Many managers will tell you that their decisions are based on incomplete or erroneous data. This usually leads to suboptimal results. Poor management decisions are often linked to the following six issues. 1. Using obsolete knowledge (relying on previous experience) 2. Decisions based on own strengths rather than accurate analysis 3. Hype and marketing 4. Dogma and belief 5. Blind Ideology 6. Uncritical emulation and casual benchmarking

Time to Retire Retirement? - Click To Read Article
Ten-years from now 80% of the native born American workforce will be over 50! When these workers start to retire there will not be nearly enough young people in the workforce to take their place.

Hire People with Organizational Grit! - Click To Read Article
“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people” - so said the famous Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. For organizations seeking progress and change there seem to be too many reasonable people about!

Guess What? Succession Planning is not Rocket Science - Click To Read Article
Managing your workforce more effectively than your competitors can give your organization a competitive edge. Putting the best people in the most critical positions means that better decisions are made more quickly, and this leads to better bottom line results.

8 Best Practices for Online Learning - Click To Read Article
Many organizations are using online learning instead of classroom based training because they believe it is more cost effective, convenient, and less time consuming. For those of us that have sat through poorly designed online learning programs, however, it can be experienced as a form of torture.

4 Building Blocks of an Effective Talent Management System - Click To Read Article
If you reduce all the hype about talent management systems down to the bare essentials, there are only four building blocks that matter: 1. Knowing the competencies that get results 2. Managing performance well 3. Evaluating employee potential accurately 4. Recruiting the best talent Sounds simple, but getting it right is as much an art as it is a science.

The Brain That Changes Itself - Click To Read Article
Here’s a tip-read Norman Doidge’s book “The Brain That Changes Itself.” The author points out that an astonishing new science called neuro-plasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable.

Building an Effective Talent Management System - Click To Read Article
Your organization probably manages its cash flow very carefully. After all, if you run out of cash you are in real trouble. But how about running out of talent? Does your organization manage its talent as carefully as its cash reserves? For most organizations the answer is “NO!” In these tough economic times attracting and retaining talented employees can be your key to competitive advantage.

The Dos and Don’ts of Innovation - Click To Read Article
In his book Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Peter Drucker put forward a few simple “hard-core” Dos and Don’ts to help companies become more innovative. How does your organization stack up against Duckers checklist?

Integral Leadership - A Useful Model for Leadership Development - Click To Read Article
Managers and HR professionals concerned with developing leaders are inundated with leadership development theories, models, concepts and courses - Situational Leadership, Servant Leadership, and the Leadership Lessons of everyone from Attila the Hun to Jack Welch, to name but a few.

The Assessment of Intellectual Functioning in the Work Environment - Click To Read Article
Most organizations need information to assist them in selecting people for jobs. A job candidate’s thinking capability is often the key to success in the current fast paced, hi-tech environment in which academic qualifications and even work experience may not be a good predictor.

Career Development Monty Python Style - Click To Read Article
So what do a doctor, lawyer, historian, graphic artist, English teacher, and script writer have in common? They are the original professions of the members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus comedy team!

How the recession has impacted people’s career goals - Click To Read Article
The current recession has forced many people to rethink their career goals. Unfortunately some people have put their careers on hold while thinking that they will pick it up again in a year or two when things get better…this is probably not a good idea!

Managing Unrealistic Employee Expectations for Rapid Promotion - Click To Read Article
Some employees are "home run hitters"—hell-bent on getting to the top as quickly as possible. They want to knock the ball out of the park even before they’ve mastered base hits. To preserve their commitment and motivation these employees need a clearly defined development plan!

3 Tips for Customer Service Excellence - Click To Read Article
Customer loyalty is fundamental to business success. But just supplying customers with a quality product may not be enough to keep them coming back; companies need to go the proverbial extra mile to ensure the customer is fully satisfied- or even better, "wowed".

4 Tips for Developing an Employee Handbook - Click To Read Article
Company policies are often determined in a reactionary or even ad-hoc fashion and may change to suit certain situations. This is especially true for small organizations. This is a risky strategy and may lead to unwanted litigation from disgruntled employees if they feel that they are not being treated fairly by management. It is important to set the company’s ground rules for conduct and the best way to do it is with an official employee handbook.

3 Tips For Creating Productive Teams At Work - Click To Read Article
Team work is essential for effective business. No employee, not matter how talented they are, works in a bubble. The problem with teams, however, is that they are made up of individuals who sometimes have competing ideas and personalities. These differences, in one sense, can be valuable (i.e. during brainstorming or creative sessions), but they can also lead to conflict. So how can managers put together effective, productive teams and skip all the drama?

How To Think Like A Leader - Click To Read Article
The thought process of a leader is different from that of followers. Sure, leaders are usually very smart and have access to plenty of specialized knowledge and experience to help them make decisions; but these characteristics are not what make leaders “different” thinkers. What makes leaders different is their ability to think critically in leadership situations. Critical thinking is the key. So how does one go about thinking critically to make the right choices in leadership situations?

4 Tips for Job Seekers Who Are Being Interviewed - Click To Read Article
Interviewing for a job can be a nerve racking experience. The pressure of convincing an employer you are the right person for the position is sometimes overwhelming, especially in a tough economic climate like this one. But even when the competition is staunch, there are ways to WOW your potential new boss.

4 Tips for Managing a Mid-Life Career Change - Click To Read Article
From personal experience I have found that there are only two types of people who change careers in mid life: those who want to and those who have to. And it seems that the “have to” group is in the majority these days. With this in mind, here are four-tips for people who "have to" change their career.

Successful Transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Supervisor Role - Click To Read Article
The time has come. You were an employee in an organization and now you are being promoted to a supervisory position. How can you make the jump from one role to the other and still be successful? As a supervisor you now have more roles and responsibilities. Here are some tips for transitioning from an individual contributor to a supervisor.

Check Out the “Dark Side” or Personality when Hiring or Promoting - Click To Read Article
"Commercial enterprises are rife with myriad narcissistic personalities" according to Joan Lachkar, author of an interesting little book called "How to Talk to a Narcissist". Here are some tips for recognizing the "dark side" of personality when hiring or promoting employees.

When Managing Change - Understand The Grief Cycle - Click To Read Article
In 1969, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote a book, called ‘On Death and Dying’ in which she described a cycle of emotional states experience by people who lose a loved one. She called this the “Grief Cycle”. The Grief Cycle is now recognized as a process that is experienced more generally by people working their way through bad news.

7 Best Practices for Developing E-Learning Content - Click To Read Article
Despite the current tough economy, forward looking organizations continue to invest in developing their human capital. In the past, employees were trained in the skills needed for a specific job, however in this rapidly changing business environment, cross-training can help employees to be more versatile.

Diagnosing Our Immunity to Change - Click To Read Article
Why do we find it so hard to change? Think of all your New Year’s resolutions that remain unfulfilled or your gym membership that goes unused because you find it so hard to change your old ways.

A Reliable Predictor of Job Performance - Click To Read Article
Predicting who will be a top performer is the Holy Grail of the hiring process. There are so many variables that drive job success, however, that hiring managers frequently drop any pretense of a scientific approach and end up trusting their gut. Unfortunately this can reject viable candidates and produce a "cloning effect" (hiring in your own image).

Train Your Workers, Develop Your Leaders - Click To Read Article
Some managers view training and development as the same thing, whereas they are actually distinctly different. Managers sometimes send their employees to training courses expecting them to return with a new set of behaviors that will make them more effective as leaders—and are then disappointed by the results.

Employee Turnover in the IT Industry - Click To Read Article
Even as companies institute hiring freezes or are downsizing, they would do well to remember that it is more cost effective in the long run to hold on to employees with key skills.

Overcoming Resistance to Change - Click To Read Article
Immunity generally refers to your physical well being (particularly in the current H1N1 epidemic); but Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey have written a book that deals with psychological rather than physical immunity.

A Message for Instructional Designers - Learning Styles Are Important - Click To Read Article
I recently had a casual conversation with a guy responsible for checking aircraft engines for cracks in the metal casings. A pretty critical job you might think-particularly if, like me, you fly a lot on business. I was interested in the quality tool and systems he uses in his job “Six Sigma? SPC? ISO 9000? “ I inquired. “I sat through all that stuff in class,” was his response, “but I really didn’t understand it or pay attention”. He thought for a second and added, “but I know I can detect a hairline crack on a piece of metal from 100 yards!”

Rethinking Cognitive Skills Testing for New Hires and Promotions - Click To Read Article
Hiring managers need to make accurate assessments about the cognitive capabilities of potential new hires and those up for promotion (e.g. handling complex information, identifying priorities, and making effective decisions). A hundred years of IQ testing has, however, distorted the image of cognitive assessment to the point where it has largely gone out of favor. No single score can reflect the complex interaction of cognitive, motivational, psychological and contextual factors that impact on thinking.

Practical Advice for Making “Real Change” and “Change Real” - Click To Read Article
Studies show that only 15% of patients change their life style when they are told by their doctor that if they don’t they will die. It seems that, even in life or death situations, the desire to change is not enough to effect real change. So what is it that holds us back from making changes a reality?

Employee Testing and Assessments - Click To Read Article
According to the US Department of Labor all assessment tools used to make employment decisions are subject to professional and legal standards. For example, both the evaluation of a resume and the use of a highly standardized achievement test must comply with applicable laws. Assessment tools used solely for career exploration or counseling are usually not held to the same legal standards.

Boot Camp Training for Conflict Resolution Skills - Click To Read Article
A few hours of conflict resolution training can help work groups and teams to better manage conflict levels in the workplace. Providing employees with a common conflict resolution language and process can pay dividends in maintaining productivity and morale. Eight key skills of conflict resolution are...


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