Hiring Top Talent

…nurturing talent inside an organization makes strategic sense…
–John Ryan (managing director at RSMR/TRANSEARCH)

Change is a constant. Re-organizations, re-structuring, lay-offs, and looking at ways to cut costs are likely to continue.  Knowing this, it’s more important than ever to have the right person in the right job.

Hiring that “right person” is a challenge faced by all leaders. It’s important to be clear on job functions, responsibilities and behaviors to help grow results. It’s also equally important to spend sufficient time looking for candidates internal to your organization or business to fill an opening.

External hiring will always be in the mix, but don’t forget about your high potential employees. You will have easy access to skill-sets, talent, experience, passion, and goal achievement, along with feedback and performance results.

Hiring from within saves costs, utilizes and builds on existing company knowledge, and most important, builds employee morale and loyalty.

In a 2010 Employee Job Satisfaction survey conducted by SHRM, what matters most to employee are the following 5 elements:

No. 1: Job Security

No. 2: Benefits

No. 3: Opportunities to use skills and abilities

No. 4: The work itself, tied with, the organization’s financial stability

No. 5: Compensation and pay

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As leaders, we need to understand the skills and talent our staff brings to the table. We need to ensure each member has a development plan, and we need to understand their passion and career aspirations. We must commit to building talent, and we need to provide honest, and sometime difficult feedback, about an individual’s skills and competencies.

Commit to retaining top talent, and remember, if you don’t “hire hard”, you’ll have to “manage hard”!

7 Reasons To Attend The Journey

In leadership, don’t think of good or bad, right or wrong styles.  Think in terms of what could be done differently to achieve desired results!

7 Reasons To Attend The Leadership Journey: 

  1. Improve communication and relationships
  2. Make better decisions
  3. Advance planning and task management skills
  4. Enhance listening skills
  5. Better manage conflict and difficult situations
  6. Increase employee engagement
  7. Build self confidence

Satisfaction guaranteed!
Earn 18 priSM CPD credits and 3 PSM level points

 Testimonials:

“The training was fantastic! I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to become a better leader, team player or human being!” –C.B.

The Journey provided the overall ability to step back, assess current roles, and provided amazing diagnostics via the tools/instruments regarding leadership styles for myself and others.” –T.S.

Why wait? Enroll today!

Self-Assessment

Self assessment is universal truth.
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A Self-Assessment For the New Year

Where are you now? Where would you like to be?

We’ve begun the new year, and what better way to kick it off than by completing a simple, yet hopefully, thought provoking assessment.

Use a scale of 1-5, 5 being highest, answer the set of 8 questions below.

  1. I am concerned about long term planning over day to day problems and annoyances.
  2. I allow me/my team/organization to invest in new technology, processes, training, and tools without trying to delay the investment.
  3. I have clearly defined vision, mission, goals, and roles, have communicated them, and track my progress.
  4. I hold myself and others accountable to high-performance standards.
  5. I permit the team to work on projects and with customers without looking over their shoulders.
  6. I deal with difficult conversations with customers, staff, and peers rather than avoid the situation.
  7. I admit mistakes freely and allow mistakes to be learning events, for me, and others.
  8. I am passionate about what I do, and WANT to continually develop my skills, and help others succeed.

How many did you score a 4 or 5 in?  What about a 1 or 2?

Now score your boss. How’d they do? Would you be willing to share your results with your leader? What about sharing with them how you rated them? Is there anything you’d like to see change?

Think in terms of where you are now and where you’d like to be. How much change is required?

Leading With Fear

Fear promotes underachievement and mediocrity.

Fear impacts us all. We’ve talked about how fear impacts our decision making skills, and yes there’s more. We fear that we may fail, that we may lose control, that we won’t meet our goals, that we may not be liked, that we’ll be rejected, and so on.

Leading in a culture of fear is stifling, behaviors and inspiration are impacted, growth and creativity suffer, underachievement and mediocrity flourish.

As leaders we need a heightened awareness of what impacts us and how. Especially during times of change, (in some cases turmoil), we need to have stronger relationships with our staff to assess how they are doing.

Fear can be inspirational, but more often than not, it creates discomfort and restlessness, and negatively impacts productivity and results.

Let’s start by looking at how we lead. Do we fear losing control? Are we micro-managing? Are we too involved?

Control points vary. Do we provide timely communication? Do we solicit feedback? Do we address and manage conflict? Do we provide sufficient latitude empowering team members to address and resolve issues on their own or do we feel compelled to intervene?

Leadership is certainly not a popularity contest, but we can be inspiring and trusted while simultaneously holding ourselves and others accountable for actions and behaviors.

We’re all going to make mistakes. Let’s not err on the side of stifling creativity and diminishing the opportunity to learn and grow. Lead with confidence, not with fear.

Decisions Made In Fear

Fear paralyzes groups, leaders, decisions, and success 

Fearful decisions by corporate leaders and executives have a way of replicating more poor decisions and creating fearful leaders.

Decisions Made In Fear Are Stifling . . .   

Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting notices of individuals that are being laid off from their positions after many dedicated years of service.

It seems to me that corporate leaders of the world not only have a business responsibility, but also a social responsibility. They must determine if they are operating out of fear when making these critical decisions, (or perhaps due to mandates), and understand the far reaching impacts to individuals, and to their organization.

I am not saying these layoffs are wrong; I’m suggesting a need to determine if the changes are based on fear, or for the benefit of their companies future.

If a leader operates out of fear, they will not make proper short or long term decisions. Fears and insecurities of those around them will increase, creating a paralyzed group of decision makers and leaders.  It then propagates itself, damages trust, and breaks down innovation. In other words, accomplishing the exact opposite of what’s intended (to excel and thrive). Once a leader creates that fear based environment, it is very difficult to recover; we’ve coached many.

Interesting enough these decisions are said to be made to improve business conditions. The idea is to get rid of poor performance and/or improve the bottom line in case there are poor future business conditions.

We don’t want short term fearful behavior at any level if we are ever to get the world economies back on track to prosperity.

Who is responsible for all of this and who owns this? Please read John Miller’s book The Question Behind The Question ISBN 0-9665832-9-9 and 12 Steps For Courageous Leadership ISBN 978-1-4567-1937-1 to help remain on track.

On our next segment we will talk about the “fear of losing control”. I would appreciate any and all comments.

Kicking Off 2012

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”
–John Quincy Adams

HOW DO YOU INSPIRE OTHERS?

Do you:

  • Provide feedback?
  • Offer opportunities for growth?
  • Listen to new ideas and opposing views?
  • Delegate assignments and responsibilities?
  • Reward and recognize accomplishments?
  • Know what others are passionate about?
  • Understand that conflict is healthy and can be inspiring?

Take a few minutes and think about how you influence and inspire others. Now take it to the next step and try something new;  let me know how it goes!