Make 2009 Your Best Year Ever Part IV
Make 2009 Your Best Year Ever Part IV
2008 was a year in which many organizations continued to strive to become an "employer of choice." There was plenty of rhetoric about attracting the new generation of worker and keeping high performers happy and productive. These new generation employees quickly lose confidence in managers who let performance issues slide, and ineffectively deal with what we call "managerial moments of truth." Turnover of highly productive people linked to management incompetence is on the rise. Clearly, people join an organization but leave a manager. High performers often work for a while, get frustrated, and then move on.
Most businesses are designed around average performers, so it's risky leaving professional development up to each individual. Rarely do individuals seek out coaching and training in the fundamentals required to advance the business. Most gravitate to training that feels comfortable or is trendy. It doesn't help when managers label non-technical training as "soft skills." Soft based on what? Soft, because it seems warm and fuzzy? Soft, because it's not technical? Soft, because it's challenging to put on a spreadsheet? Let's make one thing clear, "soft-skills" are the hard part. Anyone can learn information or data. Connecting to others and gaining their willing cooperation is the hard part.
Advanced organizations say competencies dismissed by others as "soft", are critical to their success. Experts tell us Six Sigma succeeds or fails based on the human element. If organizations only target process improvements, Lean Manufacturing often misses the mark. Synchronizing non-technical skills with process improvements out-performs technical training every time.
Technical skills are knowledge-based and knowledge transfer can be tested, but non-technical competencies are better measured based on whether or not they produce a clear and specific business outcome.
2009 may become the year of downsizing for some organizations and a year of making tough, survival decisions. It is critical to keep survivors focused on the future in parallel to tough, survival decisions. Our advice is to stay focused on what matters. Most people need less help dealing with the stress of tough situations and more support in building a viable future. People are not "human resources" to be used up like spent fuel. Responsible organizations treat people as human beings with feelings, families, and genuine fears. One of our participants lead a team who's employment was terminated. His organization spent $7,000 per employee on career counseling. He took a different approach, his team of 15 found other employment within weeks - outperforming expensive outplacement services. He was the last one hired by a new organization. Like the captain of a sinking ship, he felt it was important to ensure that his team was taken care of first.
The human approach works best in these situations just as it does in Lean Six Sigma approaches and other, technically driven initiatives. It takes thinking, feeling people to compassionately resolve people issues. Doing what's right is inconvenient at times, but it's still the right thing to do. You cannot "buy" a solution to this responsibility.
Make 2009 Your Best Year Ever Part IV - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Mather's Website.
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Recruiting, hiring, and developing high performers
2008 was a year in which many organizations continued to strive to become an "employer of choice." There was plenty of rhetoric about attracting the new generation of worker and keeping high performers happy and productive. These new generation employees quickly lose confidence in managers who let performance issues slide, and ineffectively deal with what we call "managerial moments of truth." Turnover of highly productive people linked to management incompetence is on the rise. Clearly, people join an organization but leave a manager. High performers often work for a while, get frustrated, and then move on.
Most businesses are designed around average performers, so it's risky leaving professional development up to each individual. Rarely do individuals seek out coaching and training in the fundamentals required to advance the business. Most gravitate to training that feels comfortable or is trendy. It doesn't help when managers label non-technical training as "soft skills." Soft based on what? Soft, because it seems warm and fuzzy? Soft, because it's not technical? Soft, because it's challenging to put on a spreadsheet? Let's make one thing clear, "soft-skills" are the hard part. Anyone can learn information or data. Connecting to others and gaining their willing cooperation is the hard part.
Advanced organizations say competencies dismissed by others as "soft", are critical to their success. Experts tell us Six Sigma succeeds or fails based on the human element. If organizations only target process improvements, Lean Manufacturing often misses the mark. Synchronizing non-technical skills with process improvements out-performs technical training every time.
Technical skills are knowledge-based and knowledge transfer can be tested, but non-technical competencies are better measured based on whether or not they produce a clear and specific business outcome.
2009 may become the year of downsizing for some organizations and a year of making tough, survival decisions. It is critical to keep survivors focused on the future in parallel to tough, survival decisions. Our advice is to stay focused on what matters. Most people need less help dealing with the stress of tough situations and more support in building a viable future. People are not "human resources" to be used up like spent fuel. Responsible organizations treat people as human beings with feelings, families, and genuine fears. One of our participants lead a team who's employment was terminated. His organization spent $7,000 per employee on career counseling. He took a different approach, his team of 15 found other employment within weeks - outperforming expensive outplacement services. He was the last one hired by a new organization. Like the captain of a sinking ship, he felt it was important to ensure that his team was taken care of first.
The human approach works best in these situations just as it does in Lean Six Sigma approaches and other, technically driven initiatives. It takes thinking, feeling people to compassionately resolve people issues. Doing what's right is inconvenient at times, but it's still the right thing to do. You cannot "buy" a solution to this responsibility.
Make 2009 Your Best Year Ever Part IV - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Mather's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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