Crucible - a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact
to cause or influence change or development . . .
and this and this is the place where true leaders emerge! In the third of a four-part series of related articles, we continue to explore the circumstances in which organizational leaders will find themselves tested and tried. They will have been ‘proven’ by fire!
In the previous article in this series, we discussed the organizational life cycle (using the S-curve) and examined the need for a ‘fledgling’ organization as a way of providing continuity for all that is valued. This is much the same approach that we use to assure ourselves of immortality by having children. The growth patterns are also very similar in all areas – physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual.
In this issue, we’ll take a look at the parental challenges of raising the ‘fledgling/child’ and specifically how we might resolve some or all of the inevitable growing pains. If you haven’t tumbled to it yet – the leader is the ‘parent persona’.
What’s going on . . .
The parallels are strong in this analogy (see previous issue); the stages of growth in a child are replicated in the emerging organization. The first struggles are for independence through a faltering mastery of elemental skills including self-awareness / uniqueness (product/service design), relationships (market definition), independence in resources (logistical structure), limits and discipline (regulatory issues) and nurturing and maintenance (administrative support), to name just a few.
As soon as the child feels secure, there follows a child-like exploration of boundaries, a sense of wonder and delight / excitement in discovery countered by the occasional pain and embarrassment of over-stepped boundaries and the confusion and frustration of insufficient power to act freely and independently. Our new ‘life’ acquires a life presence of its own.
Then of course, there are the rebellious ‘teen’ years, wherein the fledgling organization must ‘push the envelope’, test its strengths and define its independent stance in the market. The confusions that arise are legion; being neither ‘child’ nor ‘adult’, there’s rejection from both sides. Life is far from comfortable.
Seeking out and then asserting independence and autonomy leads to significant crises and setbacks, all complicated by a relative lack of knowledge, skill and wisdom, not to mention a shortage of the power needed to deal with issues effectively. For a short but intense period, life becomes tremendously complicated – and all is magnified and out of proportion.
Our new ‘life’ is in the unenviable position of not being taken seriously by more mature beings, but yet is energized by the opportunities to prove itself equal or better than any challenge. They can be a pain in the anatomy and the leader as parent has a worthy role!
The Vital Task Ahead . . .
The need is to nurture the commendable characteristics and traits, to identify and encourage the personal strengths while controlling the excesses and risky initiatives, as we maintain a steady course forward. It is the core elements that matter – a clear Vision, focused Mission or Purpose, and resilient Values and Standards. Many a wayward ‘teen’ has been rescued from self inflicted danger or inordinate risk by having a clear life Vision – the credible dream of what (s)he is going to be in the foreseeable future. The leader as mentor has to keep the fledgling’s eye on the ball and to ensure that the dreams are realistic.
Conflict is inevitable while the fledgling remains in the nest. Valuable resources are being shared and there’ll be differences in opinions and interpretations for certain. In addition, there’re always sibling rivalries. As with a child, the young organizations need to be guided by clear-cut Principles and Values, and strategies are best when founded on personal strengths.
Where the parent has coherent values which have been freely extended to the fledgling, which in turn has made reasonable adaptations on internalization, there’s no problem. If the parent lacks coherence, perhaps due to the sudden culture shifts that can accompany mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, ownership or leadership transfers, etc., expect more confusion and conflict. It’s not at all easy for a child to accommodate changes in the parent roles.
The Essential Skills . . .
However, every new life has to master ambiguity, conflict and frustration as an essential part of the maturation process. Time and attention has to be devoted by the leader, and there are extraordinary demands for patience and resilience, understanding and forgiveness. The ultimate responsibility though, must rest with the new life whose task it is to adapt.
This is one essential life skill that is neglected by most during these critical formative years – the ability to deal constructively with ‘polarities’. Polarities are those demands which appear to be in conflict even though this is not always the case.
Common examples are to have the job done right and to have it done quickly; the demand for added value and the need to have the lowest costs; consistency in quality and continuous improvement. These polarities are many and varied and reflect the changing needs of a volatile and capricious market. Sometimes the challenge of dealing with them can tear the maturing entity apart through internal dissentions. The skill has to be mastered.
One relevant core skill is the ability to respond intelligently to change demands – both transactional and transformative – and the wisdom to know the difference! Those who can handle this will survive and prosper – those who cannot will falter and fail. With these stakes, surely it’s well worth the time and focused attention needed to get it right. There’s nothing as rewarding as a healthy, well adjusted, focused, confident and resilient child.
Did I tell you about my son, the doctor . . .? Next issue, as a final item in this series, we’ll outline a practical, stepped agenda for leaders who have dreams of successful parenthood.
Meanwhile, where are you?
Where is your organization? Do you really know?
The journey towards success as a leader / manager begins with an honest appraisal of where you are now. Are you ready for the truth? Are you prepared to explore the challenges of deep change? Is this the time for you as an individual and for you as an organization?
We offer the Leadership Crucible – a penetrating, constructive workshop centered on proven leadership competencies – which will inspire and assist you to navigate the developmental challenges you’re facing – individually and collectively. It isn’t easy and it will cost you some, but it’s a journey we all need to take, at least once – if we intend to survive and succeed.
Let’s be clear, you do not have to do this. In fact, like parenthood, it would be safer and more comfortable not to do it. Without the experience though, nothing significant will change, including your eventual demise. The reward, should you do it, is that you will break free of ‘slow death’- and that which is of value to you will indeed go on living - forever!
If you do take the plunge, you’ll have better than a fighting chance for success in leadership and management – especially if you do it as a team. When considered against this potential outcome the price of one day of your time and a few hundred dollars may well be a sound investment.
This is a tap on your head. Should we be talking?
A Note to our Readers . . .
Previous series of articles on the topics of
Leadership Characteristics,
Succession Planning, and
Managing Change
have been designed as discussion guides for those who lead and manage through mentoring and coaching. If you would like to secure a copy for your own use, please contact us.
It is a pleasure to share ideas with you and we'd welcome your questions, suggestions and comments. They'll assist us to refine and expand the essential value of these initiatives.
Employee attitude surveys frequently reveal that people do not feel appreciated and are seldom told they do a good job. These same people typically complain that they get instant feedback when they make a mistake. In his book “The Instant Manager: More Than 100 Quick Tips and Techniques for Great Results”, Cy Charney offers these pointers to help you rectify the situation:
Relate rewards to job performance rather than to factors such as seniority that have little or nothing to do with effort and skill.
Set goals or standards with your people individually and in teams. These should be specific, measurable and reasonable, yet challenging.
Recognize people immediately so that there is a clear link between performance and reward.
Personalize the recognition. Treat each person individually, but with similar boundaries. For example, don't reward one person with a pat on the back and another with a day off work for similar achievements.
Vary the ways you recognize people so that the process does not become mundane. Some ways to show your appreciation include: an oral thank you, a written commendation, upbeat comments on Post-it Notes at a person's work station, a gift, time off, a free meal, praise at a management meeting, a plaque or an award at a banquet.
Periodically acknowledge people in front of their peers. It sends a clear message about the things that are important to you.
Reward people who have worked excessive overtime at the expense of their family by sending a letter of thanks to their families, flowers to their homes or a voucher for a family dinner.
Don't overdo recognition. Constant compliments to staff will turn the process into a mockery.
Business Humor: Inspirational Posters . . .
Are you tired of those up-beat inspirational posters co-workers hang in their offices? Do they sound a little too ‘polly-annish’ for you? Well, here’re some office inspirational posters you’ll likely never see:
We put the “k” in “kwality”
A person who smiles in the face of adversity…probably has a scapegoat.
Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.
Teamwork…means never having to take all the blame yourself.
Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.
Go the extra mile. It makes your boss look like an incompetent slacker.
Indecision is the key to flexibility.
Aim low, reach your goals and avoid disappointment.
If you can stay calm while all around you is chaos...
then you probably don’t understand the situation.
by Ted Matthews - as published in Profitguide.com, November 24th 2005
I recently flew to Chicago on Air Canada. After reaching cruising altitude, the steward announced that they would shortly be serving drinks and showing us a repeat of last night's CBC Television newscast. The drinks started, but the news did not. Eventually, the steward announced that they were having technical difficulties and told us, "Sorry, no news—the VCR isn't working."
What? A $120-million aircraft and the VCR doesn't work? "Never mind missing yesterday's news," we wondered, "what about the rest of the plane—is it working?"
This little, but all too common, Air Canada-type glitch made me recall one of my favorite brand quotes. Donald Burr, CEO of the former People's Express discount-airline pioneer, liked to tell his staff: "Stains on our coffee trays mean we don't maintain our jet engines." Little things say big things!
A brand isn't the logo or the advertising; it's what people think of you. And that comes from thousands of touch points and interactions they have with your people, products and services in every location and at every moment. All those touch points—the positive ones, the negative ones and the bland ones too—add up to what people think of you.
At the same time, having a strong brand for your company has become vital. We live in a global market, which provides for hyper choice in every category of product or service. This, in turn, is creating hyper-messaging, with all these firms competing for brain space in our prospects' minds. In fact, consumers/buyers are now using brands for self-defence. Their ability to screen out messages is becoming the only way to cope, so they select the brands and corresponding messages they will let in and avoid all others. They skip industry trade shows, filter out spam, ditch junk mail, screen their phone calls, mute commercials, download their own commercial-free music and read only narrow vertical magazines—taking in only confirmation messaging about their own personal-use brands. Ouch.
So growing your brand is tough! Today, one of the few ways you can still do so is with remark- ability. That is, the product or service must be so special as to be re-mark-able, one that people will tell their friends and acquaintances about.
Back to the airline business for an example. People keep telling me how terrific WestJet and its people are: they're friendly, they tell jokes, the flights are on time—and I have never heard about the VCR not working! WestJet's managers have built their brand by understanding that it's the little positive touch points that lead to recommendations. After either experiencing or hearing about how terrific WestJet is, we will likely pay attention to its advertising and let it reinforce the same remarkable message with proof, by telling us that each person at WestJet is an owner of the company. Cool.
One of my clients is Upper Canada Forest Products, which distributes hardwood lumber across North America. In an old industry of tough, "take it or leave it" lumber guys, Upper Canada differentiates itself with a brand promise of "What you want, when you want it, by people that know and care." And as the first touch point proof of this promise, the phone only ever rings twice when you call them. They want you to talk to a live body, so if the person you've called doesn't answer by the second ring, your call kicks over to everybody's desk and another friendly and helpful person will grab it (fast) and take care of you. Nice.
In my work as a brand coach, I visit a lot of companies. The "It's the little things" talk is a great place to start because virtually everyone can use a little help here. The classic example is the "dead plant syndrome." Ever go into an office and see a dead plant in the corner? The plant that was bought to make the office look nice and friendly? The same one that withered and died without anyone noticing? I can assure you that your clients and prospective clients and recruited employees have noticed. And if stains on the trays say that we don't service our jet engines, then a dead plant screams that you might be missing some important numbers if you're in the accounting business, or that the oil hasn't been topped off if you're in the car-rental business.
It always amazes me how many businesses I know that, after fussing to get every detail just right for their grand opening, later don't seem to notice the cracked walls, dirty washrooms or stacks of junk everywhere that have developed over time. Yet often, these are the first touch points for visitors.
I understand that all this attention to detail is hard work. As a rule of thumb, I suggest you use the question: Are we "opening day ready"? If this were the very first day you were open for business, would you accept the way your place looks, smells and sounds, and how your team is acting? After all, that will be what people think of you.
Dear Coach: Here’s one for you that I’m sure just about everyone can identify with! I’m referring to the tendency that some colleagues and even a few customers have to overlook or even ignore ‘phone and e-mail messages that you leave for them. Usually they’re very apologetic when you do reach them, but they likely don’t realize that this is neither credible nor helpful. Whatever happened to plain old good manners?
Response:
You have indeed touched on a ‘sore issue’ with this one. There are two points though, that I’d like to make to put the issue into proper perspective before I suggest a remedy. The first is the assumption that the act of ignoring a message is necessarily a conscious one – this isn’t always the case. The second is that the other party will respond to our intention, implicit in the message we’ve left – when they may not even have registered it as we intended.
Let’s look at the first issue – the importance or relevance of the message is not appreciated by the receiver and action is subsequently deferred. There are often competing demands and most people make the best guesses they can under difficult circumstances and with the limited information at hand. There will be errors in judgment for sure.
If the caller has given complete details of the need and perhaps included the consequences that may follow if their needs are not accommodated, then the receiver is better prepared in making the decision to respond now or later. In many cases however, it’s left to guesswork. We’ve all been there. This leads us into the second assumption.
Communication is always a precarious act since it has to be two-sided. When there’s a discontinuity in the process, as with a ‘left message’, it becomes one-sided and errors in understanding can easily occur. What this suggests to me is that if I am compelled to leave a message I must take special pains to ensure that it conveys my intention and the outcome I expect in very clear terms. In my experience, this doesn’t always happen.
If I receive a message, and this is rarely a unique event in my day and has to compete with a whole host of other demands, I need to be made aware that the matter has certain significance. My default position is that it is routine and has no special priority. If I’m told that specific action will be taken by a given date/time unless I intervene, then I’ll know that I must respond appropriately. This will help me to understand the other person’s intentions – and clearly.
None of this though either explains or vindicates another major reason for missed returns – poor personal organization on the part of the receiver. The reason this occurs is primarily due to the organization’s culture. Simply stated – it’s tolerated – and everyone suffers. There needs to be a strong policy, properly enforced and with serious consequences for failure. Few organizations bother to do this, and their reputation definitely suffers as a result.
There’s a great maxim, ‘The way we treat one another today is the way we’ll be treating our customers tomorrow’. If we have a double standard now – customer calls are returned immediately, but colleague’s calls, or those of a supplier, are deferred – it’s only a short time before customers will also suffer. Customers pay our salaries; should we allow deterioration in service levels? However, if we want to protect our customers, we must focus internally first!
So, assume responsibility for stating your intention and expectations whenever you leave a message. In addition, do whatever you can to set yourself up as a role model for the standard of response that you would like to experience. As Ghandi said, “Be the change that you would like to see”. For sure, you won’t win ‘em all, but you will have left a clear and compelling message!
Dear Coach: I heard recently that much less than half of all leaders and managers actually use a written statement of goals or plan of action for development. You’ve told us that a written plan is critical to success. Obviously, there are a lot of good leaders and managers out there who are not following your advice, so why should I?
Response:
What you’ve heard is true, and has been demonstrated repeatedly by competent studies. Most leader / managers don’t bother to record in detail their developmental intentions. If you read the studies carefully though, you see that the titles used are generic and often very vague, referring to any person occupying a leadership or management role.
When we speak of leaders and managers, we are not speaking of roles but rather of people. Think of those persons who you would willingly follow, work for or alongside. Think about the ones you would accept as role models and mentors. This would likely not include the majority of those measured in the studies, but just a select few.
Now, ask how many of these selected leaders and mangers likely have written plans to guide their development. I know you’ll find a much higher proportion. I have seen studies where ‘outstanding leaders’ with written plans number in the top percentiles. I also saw one study recently where just three Harvard graduates in a class of a hundred had written their plans and, twenty years later, these three were the only millionaires in the group. What does this tell you?
You will make your own decision about making the effort. However, let me leave you with one salient thought – the act of writing out your intentions is the first step to accomplishing them. So until you’ve committed your plans to writing, you haven’t committed yourself to action – perhaps you’re still ‘just thinking’ about it!
Mid-Management Excellence . . .
What is the most significant thing any CEO can do to optimize the performance of the organization?
The answer is deliberately, creatively and systematically, build the competencies and confidence levels of the mid-management group – the vice presidents, directors and operating mangers.
Dr Jonathon Byrnes of MIT recalls that, as he was reading a description of one major US automaker’s mid-management team, the phrase that stayed with him was “the frozen middle”. The essential idea was that whatever initiative top management decided the company would pursue, it would be slowed to a standstill by the unwillingness or inability of the company’s middle management group to implement it. Ultimately, this company lost enormous market share to foreign competitors and is even now struggling to recover.
What about your organization? Try this simple test – take any three month period and reflect on the amount of time invested by top management on each of the following activities:
New strategic initiatives
Managing ongoing operations
Building management competencies.
In the vast majority of organizations, the time spent on the first two of these simply overwhelms the time spent on the third!
Yet, building management capabilities is the underlying key to succeeding in the other two activities. This group is the main conduit for relaying market intelligence to top policy makers and it is also responsible for implementing just about every strategic intention that’s adopted. In short, mid-management excellence is the key leverage point for great performance – it exerts leverage both ‘up’ and ‘down’.
The argument is, of course, that it’s extremely difficult to ‘train’ people to be excellent. The middle managers are co-conspirators in this; they’ll tell you that they’re too busy, there are too many other more immediate priorities, or that development isn’t worth the time and effort needed to make it work. Besides, there’ll always be time to do it later when things quieten down. Yeah, right!
The pertinent question is, where and when do we learn best? It’s by ‘doing’, right? We all know this. This is why, and managers are right about this at least, investing in a three week program is a total waste of time and money. Management development though is not, repeat not, a training issue.
We do indeed learn by ‘doing’, by safe experimentation, by sharing ideas and actions with others, by taking bite-sized initiatives and trying to make them work as we go. We learn from experience, through our emotional responses to events and by gradually improving our confidence levels alongside our competence levels. We’ve only really learned what we’ve proven to ourselves and internalized. These are the lessons we’ll always remember.
The mid-management team comprises at least three types of manager – first-line, who make the operation function day-to-day; directors who manage the managers engaged in collaborative functions; and vice presidents who manage the future, especially the preparatory efforts that are needed today to ensure that future success will become a reality.
Implicit in all this are three basic areas for continuous improvement and shared by all three of the levels described:
Managing at the right/appropriate level (not micro-managing or wool gathering)
Collaborating to create profitable outcomes that will delight customers, and
Encouraging personal development and growth.
Dr Byrnes recommends that vice presidents should spend half of their time / effort on the third of these areas, directors should be investing at least twenty-five percent of their resources on it and even operating or first-line managers need to devote ten percent. The emphasis needs to be on promoting clarity or focus, enriching understanding and on active or engaged learning.
He concludes that the highest calling in management is teaching your managers to manage because this is the single most important element in corporate performance. Middle management excellence based on managing at the right level, coordinated profitability management and managing as teaching can be systematically developed and constantly improved. It is, after all, the ultimate point of leverage for all corporate performance.
This section is a Guest Column.
Those with different and interesting
viewpoints are invited to state a case on a related topic.
Articles are welcome – up to 250 words, please. Let’s hear from you!
Teamwork - what’s in a name? . . .
When the owner of a professional sports franchise puts a team on the field, it is done with several objectives in mind. Finding the most individually skilled players who can bring home a win is of paramount importance. However, attention should be given to a number of key attributes that provide the ‘intangibles’ that really make the difference in forming the best possible team. This parallel can certainly be drawn in any team environment, and this absolutely includes the corporate boardroom.
Skill is a word that often is aligned with great players (or team members). But can skill alone define our success in the team environment?
Selections should also be based upon who can best represent the team publicly (marketing), have the knowledge to design and implement plans (operations) and those who can successfully monitor progress and keep things on track (finance).
Business principles are clearly at work and putting together the best team our organization can field will yield the desired results. Can we work together, functioning as a cohesive unit with the same focal point? Are we putting enough pucks into the net or scoring enough touchdowns? Are we thinking about winning one game or do we have our sights on the championship? The team concept is essential to make this happen.
Our team members, or fellow staffers, must be there for us to utilize. Knowing we can have confidence in our team-mate’s abilities to execute in all arenas allows our own confidence to grow.
The best team environments take time to build and require a wide range of members. The task of assembling the best team is challenging. Finding a balance between selecting great individuals and fitting them into the team concept is crucial.
The media, competition and other external threats will from time to time attempt to throw us off our game, so we must stay true to our team colors - our team is the key to our success. Let’s keep our sticks on the ice.
Well, that’s my opinion anyway!
Brent Kinnaird
Manager, Communications & Public Relations
Hamilton Port Authority
There’s no question but that executive coaching is the ‘in’ thing. Over seventy-five percent of a selection of business leaders in the Eastern US and Mexico claimed that coaching was an integral part of their success. The ROI on the developmental costs for the sample group was an astounding 529% and this excludes the benefits of employee retention. At the same time, work quality improvements were considered to be an intangible benefit.
In the associated study by MetrixGlobal llc to enhance/optimize the business benefits from executive coaching, the following recommendations were made:
Manage the entire coaching process to ensure consistency and quality. Though the content of individual coaching sessions should always be confidential, the coaching process itself needs to be managed to ensure that the coaching clients and the coaches are following the appropriate process and leveraging best practices.
Prepare clients in advance for coaching and don't force coaching on anyone. Because coaching remains a relatively new development technique, people may not understand how the coaching process can help them become better business professionals. The sooner they understand the process, the sooner they will see results.
Offer clients the ability to select their coaches. Chemistry is important to build an effective coaching relationship. Provide prospective coaching clients with information about the coaches including biographies, education, coaching credentials, functional expertise, industry experience and other background information.
Provide coaching with strong organizational support. Those being coached should receive encouragement and support from their immediate managers. Also, coaching should be conducted in the context of other developmental efforts such as competency development, assessments, mentoring and leadership workshops.
Ensure coaches are grounded in the company's business and culture. Coaches are more effective when they can identify with and talk about the realities of their client's environment.
Allow each coaching relationship to follow its own path. A major difference between coaching and training is that coaching allows the individual to determine what works best for him or her at a very personal level. Coaches need wide latitude to work with "the whole person" and help each client be more effective as a person as well as to be more effective as a business leader.
Build performance measurement into the coaching process. Evaluation of coaching should be designed into the process from the beginning to better set performance expectations and open up new learning opportunities for making coaching more effective while the coaching is being conducted. For example, coaching can be refocused to deal with issues or to ensure that business priorities will be met. In this way, the evaluation of coaching becomes more than just a measuring stick - it becomes a structured approach to deepen the business value of coaching.
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This reasonably priced hour-long web-based seminar (US $20) is a ‘how-to’ session for leaders / managers who face the challenge of getting substantially improved performance from their people. Valuable hand-outs designed to enhance your coaching processes are included.
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Not only is it likely the most important decision for any CEO, but selecting the right leaders for the organization has to be among the most challenging. Let’s face it, it’s been a significant issue ever since mankind first began forming groups of any kind. Who shall lead them?
My primary areas of interest have always been at the interface between behavioral science and management science. I’m very aware of the substantial advances that have occurred over the past fifty years in this pivotal area, and I need to say that there are still significant impediments to getting it right.
So, what do we know for certain, and how could we best use the knowledge we have?
There are several areas that need attention in any selection process but at the executive leader level these are essential targets for our attention. We’ll start at the surface and work deeper until we hit the foundation levels:
Style: this is the deliberate projection of the persona for external impact and consumption. Each of us has a high degree of conscious control over our style and we can change it as easily as we change an article of clothing. It is very superficial and tells us very little about the real person
Temperament: the ‘shop window’ of our persona, dressed with selected items designed to entice particular others into our ‘store’. It becomes routine, even habitual within known environments and circumstances but we are well able to adapt it as long as we’re aware of its impact.
Competencies: represent the convenient packages of knowledge, skill and motivations that provide us with substantial advantages in coping with our life. They take the form of coping or life management devices which we have learned and internalized over our formative years. They are also the basis for our talents and special abilities.
Personal Strengths: related closely to fundamental personal values and core character, these are selected ‘frames’ and perspectives that reflect our preferences and priorities in life. They are like tools, some of which we use frequently and with dexterity while others are less familiar. We draw on these whenever we are choosing strategies and opinions.
Character Traits: these are deeply embedded dispositions that are based in our acquired values. They form frameworks for our interpretation and response to events that affect us even though they are rarely consciously applied. They are the primary differentiating elements that make us individuals, and they are the building blocks for our Strengths and Competencies. Change at this level is long and arduous.
Drives: At the most fundamental level these are the power source that energizes us, creates our main motivations and lends substance to the formation of all above. They are ‘hard-wired’ and not readily changed, but they can be channeled with practice.
Our drives are continuously expressed, but are filtered, therefore distorted and attenuated, by the levels above through which they must pass. If there is a good degree of structural integrity between the various areas, then such distortion is minimal and the person appears to be consistent and authentic. If not, we can witness some peculiar phenomena.
When we are making selection decisions we are not performing psychological analysis, but rather looking for evidence of this structural integrity. When we know that what we’re observing is ‘truth’ we can compare and contrast what is before us within the role we have in mind.
What would this structural integrity look like? There will be patterns in cognitive abilities, interests and aptitudes, experiences and exposures, knowledge and skill sets, and in dreams and aspirations. They will need to be coherent and cohesive. They will also need to be balanced and credible.
Cognitive intelligence (mental skill sets) and emotional/social intelligence (relating skill sets) are readily measured through objective profiling. Behavioral interviewing is a great assist too since, when used properly, it can reveal actual history which is verifiable. The information gained from both of these methods will help to establish the baseline for selection.
We must do more than this though if we want to identify exceptional talent – the kind that leaders must possess. Past work experience, job knowledge and emotional/social skills aren’t enough! Some form of projection, venturing into territory that is relevant to the proposed role, but unfamiliar to the candidate is required.
We could create small case studies, for example, that would present a likely scenario within the role and then allow reasonable time and latitude for response (see example below). Variations on this theme could include group tasks (involving a group of other executives with whom the candidate would be working) or more formal In-Basket tests. In the military such approaches have been used extensively for officer and aircrew selection – and they work well.
Demonstrations of this type reveal both patterns and the underlying competencies of candidates in a close approximation of reality. The errors that can arise in translating interview findings to actual practice are reduced significantly. An added advantage is that ‘face value’ or perceived relevance is high and the candidate has a credible sample of what the role will demand.
The case studies do not need to be job or industry specific since the executive perspective is focused on the future and upon people in the main if it is to be effective. The need for technical or specialist knowledge can be met by subordinate roles and supporting staff. If the right selection criteria have been established in advance, there’ll be no confusion on this aspect. (refer to the bonus item appended to this article)
Imagine you want to determine whether someone can critically examine underlying assumptions and can anticipate likely unintended consequences. Rather than ask the candidate to recount an occasion in which she did either of these things, you could present a fact-based situation (case study) in which she would need to apply such skills. An executive intelligence evaluation designed to test these abilities might look like this:
“You are the CEO of a large software company. Your prices are being severely undercut by both domestic and foreign competitors. Your executive team recognizes a desperate need to cut costs. Your COO concludes that the answer is to outsource most of the company's programming to foreign subcontractors, thereby reducing labor costs. In fact, your COO has already received a number of bids from service firms in both India and South Korea. What questions do you have about his proposal?”
A candidate displaying a high level of executive intelligence would explain that the core assumption underlying the COO's conclusion would need to be confirmed—that is, outsourcing automatically equals cheaper production. She might point out that there may be indirect costs (up-front investment, ongoing customer service, and software development issues) involved with such a move that must be considered. Further, she would cite the probable unintended consequences of the COO's proposal, such as how using a distant workforce might affect current staff morale, productivity or labor relations. There are likely other perspectives too.
This isn’t tough to do, and considering the benefits and also the dangers involved, it may well be worth the time and effort to apply it. Casual conversation over cocktails simply doesn’t cut it. As with all professional selection processes though, it needs to be properly and objective prepared, consistent in application across all candidates and conducted with due diligence and decorum.
Manage Your Professional Image . . .
What are the steps individuals should take to manage their professional image?
Mallory Stark, Career Information Librarian at Baker Library advises:
First, you must realize that if you aren't managing your own professional image, someone else is. People are constantly observing your behaviour and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, and these are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace. It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish.
Be the author of your own identity. Take a strategic, proactive approach to managing your image:
• Identify your ideal state.
What are the core competencies and character traits you want people to associate with you?
Which of your social identities do you want to emphasize and incorporate into your workplace interactions, and which would you rather minimize?
• Assess your current image, culture, and audience.
What are the expectations for professionalism?
How do others currently perceive you?
• Conduct a cost-benefit analysis for image change.
Do you care about others' perceptions of you?
Are you capable of changing your image?
Are the benefits worth the costs? (consider cognitive, psychological, emotional, and physical effort)
• Use strategic self-presentation to manage impressions and change your image.
Employ appropriate traditional and social identity-based impression management strategies.
Pay attention to the balancing act—build credibility while maintaining authenticity.
• Manage the effort you invest in the process.
Monitoring others' perceptions of you
Monitoring your own behaviour
Strategic self-disclosure
Preoccupation with proving worth and legitimacy.
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Influencing Others – Relating Styles and Interventions
Focusing Principles – Leadership Beliefs and Strategies
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Preparatory assignments . . .
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