Tweet

Ben Nash Articles

Written by: Ben Nash

Keeping the Change Process Cool - Click To Read Article
In this hot summer weather, life is all about staying cool. If you are managing change you may also need to find ways of keeping the change process cool – people can sometimes get a little over heated about change! For people to make significant changes they must feel some heat with the current situation! People will not usually change until it gets too hot where they are. On the other hand, humans have a built in desire to stay the same. In medical terms, the process of seeking balance is called homeostasis.

Career Passion and Hard Work - Click To Read Article
Passion is mostly a good thing-right? Then I thought about Mel Gibson’s Movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” and with all the negative publicity around Mel these days, I wasn’t so sure any more. So I went and looked up “passion” in the dictionary. It said that “passion” is from the Latin verb patior, meaning to suffer or to endure. As an emotion it is an intense, compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something. So which is it guys? To suffer or endure or to desire something? This left me even more confused! The only concussion that I could come to was that passion seemed to be a desire for suffering, but that did not seem rite either so I kept on looking. Then I came across an article written by Curt Roengren: “4 Myths About Career Passion.” Here’s what he says...

Check out O*Net - A great Free HR Online Resource - Click To Read Article
If you don’t already know about it, you need to pay an online visit to O*Net, the nation’s primary source of occupational information. The O*NET database contains information on hundreds of standardized and occupation-specific descriptors. The database, which is free to access, is continually updated by surveying a broad range of workers. O*NET Online, an interactive application for exploring and searching occupations. The database also provides Career Exploration Tools, a set of valuable assessment instruments for workers and students looking to find or change careers.

America’s Got Talent? - Click To Read Article
If you have been watching NBC on Monday nights recently you may have seen the show “America’s Got Talent”. It doesn’t specify what kind of talent America’s got – just that we have it. Tonight we had examples of talent from midget break dancers, a Frank Sinatra wanna-be, and a group of eleven year old dancing girls. I guess they define “talent” quite loosely on this show. Which brings me to the following question: just how do you define talent? Personally, I have been known to strum the banjo, but does that kind of talent prepare anyone to ascend the management ladder in today’s corporate America? I think not.

“Do Something” - An original Approach to Managing Change - Click To Read Article
There are lots of change management models out there (McKinsey’s 7 S model, Kotter’s Eight Step Model, to name but two). A change model put forward way back in 1947 by Kurt Lewin called Action Research (AR) often gets overlooked. While many current models put the emphasis on planning and analysis, Lewin emphasizes taking action and then learning from the results. Learning from experience (always a good thing!) is what AR is all about. In AR you pretty much dive right in with an intervention in a real world system with the aim of improving things then you closely scrutinize the effects of your actions.

When I Grow Up I want to be a Leader or Maybe a Manager - Click To Read Article
Well which is it? Do you want to be a leader or a manager? What’s the difference? Can’t I be both at the same time? Why are you asking all these questions? Good question! Many ambitious people starting out in their career have a somewhat fuzzy notion of eventually becoming “the boss”. After all “the boss” seems to have a great life, earns lots of money, and tells other people what to do. Not bad! Then one day it finally happens-you get that promotion and wham!! You made it; you’re “number one”, “the head honcho”, “the big cheese”. Trouble is you are not really sure how to do it; no one has prepared you and you kind of feel out of your depth. So if you are in this situation (or coaching someone who is) here are a few tips to get you started:

Basic Feedback Should Be BASIC - Click To Read Article
One of the key skills of supervisors is giving feedback to employees about their performance. Feedback, of course, includes praise for a job well done as well as constructive observations about how things could be done better. Apprehension about providing feedback to employees is particularly acute among newly promoted supervisors. This is often the result of a lack of the supervisory training.

Don’t Subtract the ADDIE - Click To Read Article
All HR professionals should know about the ADDIE model - particularly those involved with employee training and development. ADDIE stands for: * Analysis/Assessment * Design * Development * Implementation * Evaluation The ADDIE model is integral to instructional design. Here are some questions to ask under each of the ADDIE headings:

Using Pre-Employment Tests Can Save You Money - Click To Read Article
Pre-employment testing is a way of determining the degree to which a candidate possesses and can demonstrate the knowledge skills and abilities required to successfully perform in the position. Any tests that are used must me job related and valid and comply with the “Uniform Guidelines on Employment Selection Procedures” issued by the EEOC. Some of the most commonly used types of pre-employment tests are...

Newsflash: HR Training Professional Struggles with the “C in a Circle” - Click To Read Article
There is considerable confusion among people in the Human Resources Development field regarding what is copyright protected and what is not – that little “c in a circle” (©). Many experienced trainers end up collecting lots of materials over the years and draw upon this when designing new courses. Using some of this “stuff” may not be such as good idea if the © applies.

Talent, Communication, and the BP Oil Spill - Click To Read Article
Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, has had a pretty rough couple of weeks. His response to the grilling by congress and his handling of communications surrounding the Gulf of Mexico oil situation was tone deaf to say the least – at least to US ears. And yet Tony is obviously a very talented guy. After all you don’t get to be CEO of BP by being a slouch. So what went went wrong? One of the hypotheses that have been circulating in the media is that there is a culture difference between the UK and USA on the use of language. As remarked by the playwright George Bernard Shaw, “England and America are two countries separated by the same language”.

Change Management Led Zeppelin Style - Click To Read Article
Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, tells us that: “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” Organizations choose a wall against which to lean their ladder. The ladder represents the work that needs to be done to get to the top; the wall represents the field of endeavor – the product or market selected to work in. The thing is, once your ladder is against a particular wall and you are half way up it, it takes a lot of extra effort to climb down again and move the ladder to a different wall (metaphorically speaking of course).

Would you get A Tattoo of the General Motors’ Logo? - Click To Read Article
When was the last time you were really excited about the customer service you received? A recent survey showed that 44% of people rate the customer service they usually receive as dull and bland. Most customer service experiences are, well ok, and we unusually come away somewhat satisfied from the experience. This is all well and good, but most of your competitors are already doing this. To stand out from the competition you need to demonstrate customer service on a dramatically different level: service that is anything but bland and dull! Think Disney, Harley Davidson, or Apple.

Staring Down The Change Elephant - Just Letting Go! - Click To Read Article
The single biggest reason for the failure of organizational changes is that no one has thought about endings! When changing things for the future many people forget they must let go of some things in the past or present. While the first task of change management is to understand the desired future, the first task of transition management is to convince people (maybe yourself) that you have to leave the past behind.

Watch out for the Talent Shortage Iceberg! - Click To Read Article
Sometimes in the midst of the current recession we forget that we have a looming talent shortage – and it will be here before we know it. You might even call it a looming Talent Shortage Iceberg! Take the shipping industry for example. Even as the rescission has reduced the volume of shipping in the last two years, shipping volume overall is up substantially compared to ten years ago. The number of tankers in the ocean, worldwide, rose 17% between 2001 and 2005 and container ships jumped by 30%. With this increase comes the need for talented deck and engineering officers-but the industry is already finding it hard to recruit qualified officers.

The French Open and Customer Service Training - Click To Read Article
Did you know that the word discussion comes from the Latin root “dis,” which means “apart,” and “quatere,” which means “to shake,” so the word discussion literally means: “to shake apart.” This, of course, is what we do to each other when we are having heated discussions! The word dialog, on the other hand, comes from the Greek root “dia,” which means “across,” and “legein,” which means to “speak” – literally “to speak across” (i.e. – to engage someone in a conversation by reaching across to them).

Organizations and Dunbar’s Number: Two is Company, 151 is a Crowd! - Click To Read Article
How many people do you know? By that I mean how many people do you recognize by sight, know their name, and a little about their background? 40? 60 ? 100? 150? How many people do you think you can possibly know before you start forgetting names and faces? (If you are like me you will probably recognize more faces than remember the names) These are interesting questions, and the answers have important implications for how we organize ourselves in groups, teams, and society in general. Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist was one of the first researchers to look into this phenomenon and he theorized in an article in 1992 that the average person could meaningfully interact with about 150 others. More than 150, Dunbar said, and we are not be able to remember who is who!

Big Bird’s Guide to Change Management - Learn your A, B, C, Ds - Click To Read Article
In the 1950s, psychologist Albert Ellis introduced Rational Therapy in which people were taught the A-B-C-D approach for dealing with uncomfortable situations. The A-B-C-D approach states that when a person is confronted with an adversity A, their beliefs B, will influence the way they respond to that adversity and lead to emotional and behavioral consequences C. If the beliefs B, are rigid, absolute, and unrealistic, the consequences C, will likely be self-defeating and destructive. If the beliefs B, are flexible and constructive, the consequences C, will likely be self-helping and constructive. People can change their lives and their consequences by D, disputing and challenging their beliefs.

7 Tips for a Positive 360 Feedback Experience - Click To Read Article
Many organizations conduct 360 assessments with their employees, but how the process is handled can determine whether employees see the exercise as a gift for their personal development or a huge waste of time. The value of the 360 feedback process is that it involves employees in their own development planning. Often times our main source of on-the-job feedback comes from our direct supervisor. Because 360 degree feedback collects information from not only supervisors, but direct reports, peers and cross-functional partners, it can provide a clearer picture of the opportunities employees have to improve professionally.

Talent Development and The Wheel of Becoming - Click To Read Article
In the Buddhist belief, the Wheel of Becoming is a representation of life, death, and rebirth. The energy produced by one’s past actions (karma) are paid forward into future outcomes. Practitioners can determine their place within the concentric circles of the wheel, which delineate the various realms of being (see the graphic above). In talent management terms, think of the Wheel of Becoming as transitioning from one level of personal development to rebirth at a higher level. There are many models of human development (see Jane Lovinger’s “Stages of Ego Development”, or Robert Kegans “The Evolving Self” to name but two). One that fits neatly with the concept of Wheel of Becoming, however, is “The Leadership Pipeline” by Charan, Drodder, and Noel.

Be a Change Management Rocket Scientist - Click To Read Article
When you get down to it, change management is a pretty “soft science” – a combination of ideas from organizational psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology (and some other things ending in “ology” that I can’t remember). This, however, does not impress our friends in the “hard sciences” (engineers, chemists, physicists and other things not ending in “ology”). These guys become suspicious if you talk to them about things you can’t put in a test tube. “Show me the empirical evidence” they say when you talk to them about the soft-side of organizational change. “I want to see the data” or “give me the formula”. This is when a change manager turns into a rocket scientist and pulls out their secret scientific weapon the CHANGE EQUATION!

3 Tips for Being The Best Boss You Can Be! - Click To Read Article
What makes a great boss? It is something to do with personal likability, gaining respect from people, and getting results! Does it have anything to do with their leadership style or methods of disciplining employees? Well, it has a little something to do with all of them. Here are three tips for being the best boss you can be.

Cultural Intelligence - Or The Art Of Avoiding “FARTFULLNESS” - Click To Read Article
We all know that intelligence is a good thing; however, it seems that new “flavors” of intelligence pop-up with annoying regularity. A few years ago it was emotional intelligence – this was cited as a “must have” for successful organizational players. Then we had social intelligence as the key skill. Now cultural intelligence is the hot topic!

Book Review: The Yes Factor - Secrets of Persuasive Communication - Click To Read Article
Why do so many authors purport to reveal secretes of various kinds in their new books? I think if I had secrets-perhaps the secrets to a better body or longer life, greater happiness, or more persuasive communication-I would not waste my time and go straight for the Nobel Prize. At the very least I would try to make a killing by patenting the idea!

4 Ways To Get Employees Excited About Their Work - Click To Read Article
These words of wisdom are from the Zig Ziglar who was talking in the 1960’s about employee motivation in times of change – but his words seem to apply as much today as they did back then. The work climate in many organizations is not conducive for employees to expect the best – in fact many are preparing for the worst, while the wisest employees try to take advantage of any and all opportunities that come their way.

Company Vision, Mission, and Values, What’s the Difference? - Click To Read Article
I was asked recently by a friend to explain the difference between a vision statement, a mission statement, and a values statement. I must confess that I struggled to answer the question as many organizations seem to use these terms interchangeably. Then my parochial school education kicked in - I had heard a lot about people with a mission when at Catholic school - they called them “Missionaries”. So what was their mission? It could be described as to carry out the “Vision of Jesus of Nazareth” (he was certainly a visionary) and to do this in accordance with the values he espoused.

The Lattice Organization - Unleashing Individual Freedom and Creativity - Click To Read Article
Most or our organizations are built on the hierarchy principle which seems on the surface to be an efficient and effective way to set things up. Why, then, do we end up frequently going around the formal organizational structures and processes to get things done? Bill Gore, founder of the very successful Gortex Technologies organization recognized that the traditional hierarchical / authoritarian structure of organizations may not be the way to go, so he came up with the concept of “The Lattice Organization.”

Online Training - Does it Work for Smaller Businesses? - Click To Read Article
Large corporations can afford to send employees to expensive external training courses or to bring trainers in-house for workshops, seminars and other educational programs. But how can small businesses make sure that their employees have similar opportunities to learn and develop their skills? The answer – more small businesses are turning to online learning for high quality learning for much less money. The primary benefit of online learning for small business is cost savings. Let’s say you wanted to become a Microsoft-certified systems engineer, which requires a multi-day course. That would run about $2,000 per person. But online, you could get the same instruction for under $200 per person. When you factor in the cost of airfare, hotel, and other incidental costs, the savings can be even more dramatic.

Change Employee Communication and Avoid the “Golden Bull” - Click To Read Article
Communicating with employees in plain English is a good thing! The main benefit is that they will have a greater chance of understanding what you are trying to say (always a good outcome of any communication). Unfortunately many messages sent out by management are less than clear. Here are a few examples of real communications.

Turning a Cinderella Training Course Into a thing of Beauty - Click To Read Article
Too many learners leave training programs as wise as when they went in! Some participants take away a few nuggets but frequently forget them in short order. This is particularly true in “soft skills training”. So if this is the case, why do organizations spend so much time, money and effort in providing employee training programs?

What are the Top 5 Reasons People Quit their Jobs? - Click To Read Article
Find out the top 5 reasons why employees quit their jobs. You may be surprised to see what is at the top of the list!

Icebergs, Polar Bears, and Change Management - Click To Read Article
Vanishing icebergs and distressed Polar bears have come to symbolize the effects of our changing climate. The iceberg has also been used as a metaphor for change in organizations. The “Change Management Iceberg” developed by Wilfred Kruger offers an explanation of why many organizational change efforts fail. Above the waterline are the three areas of concern of most managers–doing things faster, better, or cheaper.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (but remember the dark side of personality) - Click To Read Article
So the job candidate arrives looking great and eager to please. But beware-under the polished exterior may lurk a narcissistic personality. “Commercial enterprises are rife with narcissistic personalities” says to Joan Lachkar, author of an interesting book called “How to Talk to a Narcissist.”

Need to be more creative? Give yourself a “Whack on The Side of the Head” - Click To Read Article
Can you train yourself to be a better creative thinker? Answer: Yes! Everyone can be more creative, so says Roger von Oech, author of a great little book called “A Whack on the Side of the Head - How You Can Be More Creative”.

Organizational Change - Of Ferns and Fractals - Click To Read Article
Last time your took a walk in nature did you ask yourself “who controls all this stuff?” I would venture to say that you did not. Most of us take a walk just to enjoy the fresh air-but not Margaret Wheatley. Margaret looked at the natural world and asked herself: “how can there be so much order in a nature without anyone in control of it?”. For example how is there so much symmetry in a plant such as a fern?

A US Export Growth Area - Talent Development - Click To Read Article
According to the Economist magazine, US university programs are in big demand all over Asia. Despite its booming economies and huge numbers of people, Asia is suffering a big shortage of skills. They also say it is about to get worse!

Mentoring - It’s All Greek to Me! - Click To Read Article
Did you know the first mentor was Greek? It’s one of those funny things where a guy was a mentor and, by coincidence, his name was Mentor. King Odysseus (he was Greek too) asked his friend (named Mentor) to watch over his son while he went away to fight a war. Old Mentor was a wise, sober, and loyal fellow and did a great job influencing the young man for the good.

Is an Online Degree Good, Bad, or an Ugly Duckling - Click To Read Article
Although you probably would not want your doctor to have earned his MD online, online education is becoming more accepted as more and more reputable universities establish online programs. A new survey by Vault, Inc. finds that “85% of employers feel that online degrees are more acceptable today than they were five years ago.”

All Aboard the “Neo-Millennial Learning” Train - Click To Read Article
Emerging jargon in the training business includes terms such as”neo-millennial learning styles,” “mediated immersion,” and “distributed-learning communities.” Is all this just training industry obfuscation or do these new terms indicate substantive changes in the way people learn? We argue for the latter!

Tragic Change in Poland - Click To Read Article
Polish President Lech Kaczynski died in a horrific plane crash along with about 100 other high ranking Polish officials on Friday. According to the New York Times, there is now speculation about the pilot’s state of mind at the time of the crash. The article provides an insight into the organizational culture created by Mr. Kaczynski’s leadership style.

Expatriate Selection – The $1 Million Man (or Woman) - Click To Read Article
We have checked out a lot of great talent development ideas in this blog; however, the other side of being a successful talent developer is understanding what causes talent failure. One of the most expensive areas of talent failure is with expatriates! Expatriate failure is the premature return home of an expatriate manager. Did you know that between 16% and 40% of all American expatriates assigned to developed countries, fail to complete their assignments. Even worse-almost 70% of Americans assigned to developing countries return home early. Each expatriate failure can cost the organization between $250,000 and $1 million.

We Don’t Want to be Downers, but are your Career Prospects Evaporating? - Click To Read Article
Careers are not what they used to be! Some professions (e.g. medicine, law, and the military) still offer a fairly consistent career structure, but for most of us, the old and reliable career structures are evaporating.

How is your Quantum Physics? You may need it to Improve your Organization’s Performance! - Click To Read Article
Organizational cultures are like magnetic fields that cannot be seen but are strongly felt throughout the organization! Organizational communication is like a gravitational force that pulls employees in the right direction! Interactions between members of the organization are like sub-atomic particles - it is not the particles themselves that produce powerful outputs - it is the interactions between the particles that generates the power! So says Margaret Wheatly in her book Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World.

Hiring Talented Business Acumen and Business Acu-women - Click To Read Article
Okay, so it was a catchy title-there is really no gender difference when it comes to business acumen. But wait, what exactly do we mean by business acumen, and how do we know it when we see it?

Business Acumen Boot Camp is not for Sissies - Click To Read Article
Spring is in the air, buds are starting to bloom, the economy is starting to turn, and the sap is rising in the veins of entrepreneur’s everywhere (forgive the poetic license – it has been a hard winter). But although our entrepreneur’s sap is rising (when we say sap, think: motivation, frustration, ambition), their business acumen skills may not be up to the job? Here is where Business Acumen Boot Camp training can payoff.

What is a “Meta” for? (Make that Metaphor) - Click To Read Article
Many of us think successful executives are 800-pound gorillas in the corner office. Big, brave, and bold. In reality, of course, many successful managers are owls, foxes, sharks, or even turtles. I am speaking, of course, in metaphors.

Should you take a Homographic Approach to your Career Planning? - Click To Read Article
A Homo what?? Homographs are words that have two distinct meanings. For example: “It’s probably not appropriate if we appropriate their results” or “the august citizen will take office in August” or in the case of career planning, “his career ended after his car was seen to career into the telephone pole.”

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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).

Learning at the Frank Sinatra School of Leadership - Click To Read Article
When a dog lies down on command-that’s training. When Fido places an online order for a doggy bed, then lies down-that’s development. Training is about learning to do things; development is about thinking things through and deciding to do things differently. Another way to put it is that training is about “doing” while development is about “being”.

Career Development and Playing the Banjo - Click To Read Article
Three years ago I started taking banjo lessons. Don’t ask me why. I guess the idea of being totally unfashionable just appealed to me. I didn’t know what I was getting myself in for! My teacher just happened to be a former world champion banjo player, and although I thought I was pretty hot stuff because I played guitar pretty well, he soon cut me down to size.

Have You Heard of These Groups?: TWITS, NETTELS AND THE DOWNAGERS - Click To Read Article
HR professionals should be on top of changing demographic and social trends. As new trends emerge new labels are given to demographic groups (remember the 1980s and 1990s when terms such as “YUPPIES” and “DINKIES” emerged?-for the record, YUPPIES translates into Young Urban Professionals and DINKIES translates into Double Incomes and No Kids).

Teaching Old Skiers New Tricks - Click To Read Article
We recently went on our final ski trip of the season to Maine and thought it would be a great idea to brush up on our skills by taking a couple of lessons. Our instructor turned out to be a twenty-something guy who talked a lot and knew his skiing inside and out. Our little group of students included two middle aged ladies from Montreal, a young couple from Boston, and a 73 year old man from Germany, who had skied all his life, but was trying out new parabolic skis for the first time.

Change Management - Obama Style - Click To Read Article
In the end President Obama got what he wanted-significant change in health care legislation. What lessons can change managers in organizations learn from the year long battle between the Republicans and the Democrats over this issue? And what grade can we give the Obama administration for managing the process. John Kotter’s change model is a useful analysis tool for this job.

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.

The Missing Link in Employee Assessments - Click To Read Article
Many companies use assessments to help make hiring and promotion decisions. Most assessments measure one of the following attributes of the candidate: * Specific job skills * Their motivation and career goals * Their personality and potential derailers (e.g. emotional intelligence) * Their likely fit with the organization’s culture One important area that is often not assessed is the candidate’s ability to use good judgment when making decisions based on complex or ambiguous information.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Changing Your Ideas about Employee Motivation - Click To Read Article
Most managers believe that the best way to motivate employees is with external rewards-money, perks, and other dangling carrots to get people enthusiastic about their job. But according to Daniel Pink in his new book “Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates US” motivation is created internally not externally and depends on peoples ability to make decisions about their own lives, to learn and create new things, and to better themselves.

Do you know your organization’s “Execution Quotient”? - Click To Read Article
“Execution Quotient” or “xQ” for short – measures the gap between an organization’s goals and how well it achieves them. It’s like measuring the organization’s IQ for achieving results. Why do so many organizations find it difficult to execute their strategies and achieve results? Harris Polling surveyed 2.5 million workers to ask about this and they found the following shocking results...

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!”

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...





Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What is the bottom line to you?

Fighting the Saw-Tooth Affect

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.