#Leadership: How To Handle A #PR Crisis…Think a Reputation-Destroying #Crisis will Never come Calling at your #Company? But in the Event that it Does, Are you Confident that you Could Handle It?

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Think a reputation-destroying crisis will never come calling at your company? But in the event that it does, are you confident that you could handle it? Like any other pressing business risk, a possible PR crisis should be approached with deliberate preparation and planning. That is the best way to cope with the day you hope will never come, argues Yago de la Cierva in his practical book on the subject. Responsible leadership should include crisis prevention, preparation and a calm, straightforward approach to communication in the event that a PR disaster must be weathered.

Directions Man

The ABCs of Crisis Communication

Based on common-sense principles, crisis communication aims to minimize risk. De la Cierva highlights a series of action items that consider the person, the organization and society carefully. In times of crisis, key actions include:

Address perceptions. The gravity of a crisis is directly proportional to the public’s perception of it, rather than to what has actually happened on the ground.

Listen to the people who are complaining. It is very important to try to understand what is making people angry. Anger hinders communication, and the person you are addressing will not listen to your message until they have had their say.

Tune in emotionally. You need to know how to interpret the public’s mood. Communication should not be treated as an impersonal means for spreading ideas.

Reason from the point of view of those you represent. Make it clear that the company is defending the interests of the people it serves.

Distinguish between law and public opinion. You may be in the right, and yet be wrong. It’s best to have both legal advisers and communications experts on hand.

Always tell the truth. Honesty is essential to credibility. In times of crisis, one of the worst things you can do is lie.

Be accountable for your actions. Assume responsibility. That may mean fixing the problem, acknowledging the mistake or mistakes that were made and repairing whatever damage has been caused.

Be professional. Crisis communication officers must have a service-minded mentality. They need technical skills and the ability to formulate clear, inoffensive and unequivocal messages.

 

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Ready, Set, Crisis!

There are three parts to preparing for a crisis: foresight, prevention and provision. Foresight requires knowing a company’s internal and external context thoroughly enough to see crises coming and to perceive their likely consequences. Prevention means taking a proactive approach to avoid obvious crises. Provision requires creating an action plan.

Or, more plainly, a crisis plan: that is, a series of immediate measures to respond to each situation adequately. But how does communication fit into all of this?

The first step is to form a crisis management team to gather information, assign responsibilities and decide on the organization’s position regarding the crisis. The trick is to think before acting.

The crisis team’s tasks also include defining the problem, assessing whom it will affect and then deciding how the company should act. Members of the team should also, ideally, consider how the situation might evolve or play out.

Next, information should be collected systematically to create an understanding of each group that has been affected by the crisis. This data will also be used to form the company’s official response.

To communicate this response, choose a spokesperson adept at transmitting the corporate message to the various groups affected and to the media. The choice of spokesperson will depend on the nature of the crisis (technical or personal), its relevance, its location and how long it is expected to last.

Once the company’s message, spokesperson and next steps have been decided, communication channels also need to be chosen. These will normally be the same channels used for day-to-day communication; however, for rapid responses, priority should be given to interactive tools — namely, social media.

In addition, an overall plan encompassing all channels is needed. The company web site should serve as the backbone for all communications — including the intranet to keep employees informed. The media should be kept up-to-date via press conferences and email.

But the most important factor in all this is that the company takes the initiative in communication. It must transform itself into a trusted source, acting positively and creatively to control the dimensions of the problem and manage time. Updates should be made continuously and should anticipate people’s needs.

What Happens Next?

Each action plan should be measured and analyzed afterward. Even while the communications plan is still being executed, it’s necessary to analyze the press and social media landscape and monitor how well the plan is working. Once the crisis has passed, an overall assessment should be carried out, and a plan for the post-crisis period needs to be agreed upon.

Accounts of the crisis and analyses of them are highly valuable for the future. But in order for such learning to be useful, internal reforms need to be devised and implemented.

 

By IESE Insight, the knowledge portal of IESE Business School. For more visit http://www.ieseinsight.com/

 

 

Forbes.com | May 7, 2015 | IESE Business School 

#Strategy: 6 Ways To Confidently Say “I Don’t Know”….Senior Leaders Don’t need People Who Think they Know every Answer. They Want #Leaders Who can Ask the Right Questions & Find the Answers.

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The hardest three words to say aren’t I love you – they’re I don’t know. That’s the opinion of Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, authors of the behavioral economics bestseller Freakonomics. From my experience coaching executives, I have to say they’re on to something.

businesswoman-thinking-2

I’ve seen even the most accomplished and seasoned leaders get tripped up when they’re confronted with a question they can’t answer – especially when the person asking is in a position of authority. This gets more fraught the higher you go in an organization. At some point you have to oversee a wider span of activities, and can’t be effective in your role if you have an execution-level view of every function. More often, you won’t have the answer.

Yet, leaders often prepare for an important meeting as if they’re cramming for an exam. They try to anticipate any question and have a prepared answer ready. They can make their direct reports crazy with requirements for pages of metrics and explanations. (Preparation for board meetings can be a particular bit of fun.)

Our propensity to always provide an answer starts young. In a study, kids and adults were given an unanswerable question. For example, after hearing a description of a family car ride, asking if the riders had lemonade, when that was never mentioned. When asked this irrelevant question, 75% of kids tried to provide an answer. Perhaps this is the result of conditioning, as students are encouraged to try to answer a teacher’s question no matter if they know the answer or not.

 

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The researcher, Amanda Waterman, development psychology researcher at the University of Leeds, provides this perspective: “There’s a power differential between a child and an adult who’s asking them a question. And the child will feel that the adult is the person that has more of the power, and therefore perhaps they feel slightly disadvantaged. They feel like they want to show what they can do, and they don’t feel as comfortable admitting when they don’t know something.”

Looks like that conditioning runs deep. In the same study, 25% of adults tried to answer the unanswerable question as well. Note that the explanation above could just as likely describe a conversation between a boss and subordinate.

Certainly there are corporate cultures where not having an answer is career jeopardizing. But more often, we assume this to be the case when it’s not. Some neuroscientists believe that our need to know is actually linked to our brain function. When we have an answer, we get a hit of dopamine so we feel compelled to try.

I’ve conducted hundreds of feedback interviews with board members and senior leaders to gather information for my coaching clients. I’ve heard repeatedly that they want their leaders to show open mindedness, agility, courage, and presence. They want leaders who can deal with uncertainty and take risks. Having an answer for everything has only come up as a fault – discussed as a by-product of close-mindedness or parochialism.

In other words, senior leaders don’t need people who think they know every answer. They want leaders who can ask the right questions and find the answers.

Cultures suffer when leaders lack the courage to say I don’t know. Dubner and Levitt posit that if you have to be the expert and have the answer then you foster a culture that’s afraid to experiment. Without experimentation, there’s no innovation or risk. Further, being able to admit what you don’t know has been shown to increase trust. Just consider your own experience. If someone is selling you hard with an answer for everything, it shuts you down. If they can admit what they aren’t sure about, it’s an opening to a real conversation.

All this said, there are many ways to say I don’t know. The reaction you get is directly related to how you say it. You can come across as an absent-minded manager or a courageous innovator. Sometimes a simple, direct, “I don’t know” does the trick. At times, it can be helpful to have a few phrases at your fingertips that allow you to be transparent and remain centered. Here are a few other ways to say it that can help preserve your credibility, and even build it.

“I don’t know the answer to that, but I’m anxious to find out.”
“Let me tell you what I know, and what I’m still learning.”
“That’s an important question and I don’t want to give you a half answer. Let me get back to you on that by end of day.”
“I can’t tell you that with certainty. I do have an informed opinion on it which is…”
“Sarah on my team can get you the exact numbers on that. The performance metrics I’m managing show…”
“That’s an interesting question. Tell me more about what’s driving it?”
Kristi Hedges is a leadership coach, speaker and author of Power of Presence: Unlock Your Potential to Influence and Engage Others. Find her at kristihedges.com and @kristihedges.

 

Forbeswoman.com | May 4, 2015 | Kristi Hedges

 
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#Leadership:The Finding that Men are Pretending to Work 80-Hour Weeks says a Lot about Modern #Management….Research Suggests some Men are Only Pretending to Work that Much & the Fakers are Getting just as Much Praise from #Management as the True Workaholics

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Fields like finance and consulting are notorious for their life-sucking, 80-hour-plus workweeks. But new research suggests some men are only pretending to work that much — and the fakers are getting just as much praise from management as the true workaholics.

businessman cell phone

Is he a workaholic or just faking it?

The study, conducted by Erin Reid, Ph.D., assistant professor of organization at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, focused on employees at an anonymous global strategy consulting firm with a big presence in the US.

The company was known for being demanding of workers’ time. Employees told Reid that the firm expected them to be available for their work at all times and in all places. Reid reviewed performance evaluations, examined turnover data, and conducted interviews with many of the firm’s employees.

“Companies don’t seem to understand what constitutes high performance. “Expecting people to work all the time is not necessary for high-quality work and is problematic for most of the workforce,” Reid says.

Her findings showed that many men only pretended to be working all the time — when in fact, they were engaged in other activities, like spending time with family.

While 42% of the men that Reid interviewed actually were putting in 60- to 80-hour workweeks, 31% were only logging 50 to 60 hours a week but had figured out ways to deceive their managers into believing they were working more. About a quarter of men were working shorter hours and had revealed their reduced schedules to senior members of the firm.

By contrast, just 11% of the women that Reid interviewed faked longer workdays, and 44% disclosed to managers they were working fewer hours. Both men and women who revealed their reduced schedules were typically penalized with lower performance ratings or getting passed over for promotions.

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Reid suggested a few potential reasons why men were more likely than women to fake longer work hours. For one, the firm probably expected women — not men — to have trouble with work-family conflict. While it offered women more formal accommodations for part-time work or less frequent travel (and women took them), men were left to come up with more informal strategies for managing work and family commitments.

Furthermore, because they expected women to experience work-life conflict, managers may have been more vigilant about “policing” women’s time, making it easier for men to fly under the radar. 

dad with sonFlickr / Kevin DooleyMen struggle with work-family conflict, too.

Reid found there were a number of strategies men used to pretend they were working more. For example, some men cultivated local clients so they would be able to travel less. Others formed bonds with colleagues so that they could help each other fulfill their work responsibilities.

As a result, a senior manager named “Lloyd” (Reid used pseudonyms to protect the employees’ identities) was able to go skiing on a week when he was supposedly working remotely. “I took calls in the morning and in the evening, but I was able to be there for my son when he needed me to be, and I was able to ski five days in a row,” he told Reid.

Reid says this particular study focused on a single firm, so she can’t say for sure that the findings apply more generally. But when she spoke with consultants at other firms, she found they were also expected to be available to work all the time.

The findings are significant for several reasons.

First, it indicates that all workers — not just women — struggle with work-life conflict. The biggest gender difference is in how they deal with that conflict.

“Both men and women have trouble [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][with work demands],” Reid tells Business Insider. “But they have different options for coping.”

The second important implication is that companies don’t seem to understand what constitutes high performance. “Expecting people to work all the time is not necessary for high-quality work and is problematic for most of the workforce,” Reid says.

Seemingly “ideal” employees like Lloyd, who pretended to work while they were really spending time with their families, still received praise and promotions. It seems as though firms still value the display of commitment above all else. The research also suggests that employees who log excessive hours don’t always produce better results than those who work less.

Yet, in a Harvard Business Review article, Reid writes that when she approached the firm’s leaders with her findings, they showed no desire to modify their expectations of long work hours. Instead, they said a man who reveals his lack of interest in being fully committed to his work is not the kind of employee they want. Moreover, they asked how they might teach women to pretend they were working more, too.

Still, Reid says she’s hopeful that organizations may soon realize that their demands are unrealistic — and change them. Her research, she says, is part of a “big conversation.”

Businessinsider.com | May 6, 2015 | 

http://www.businessinsider.com/men-pretending-to-be-working-2015-5#ixzz3ZNjH5o4C

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Your #Career: How Recent #Graduates Can Make More Money At Their First Jobs…Most Employers Surveyed told NerdWallet they Expected #Job Candidates to Ask for More Money and 75% of #Hiring Managers said They had Room to Increase their #Salary Offers by 5% to 10%.

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Long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I landed my first job out of college as an administrative assistant at Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen Litigation Group in Washington, D.C., it didn’t occur to me to try to ask for more money than the piddling $12,000 ($31,000 adjusted for inflation) the hiring manager was offering me. I was an Ivy League grad (Brown) but I had hardly any work experience, aside from a very brief stint volunteering on Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco mayoral campaign, a project for the Rhode Island state courts and student jobs like chopping green peppers in Brown’s cafeteria kitchen. And the dingy offices (ripped mustard brown wall-to-wall carpet) underlined that this was a nonprofit where jobs didn’t pay well. But mainly, I was too naïve to consider that a salary negotiation was even a possibility.

20 yr old hired

According to a survey released today by the personal finance website NerdWallet, new college graduates haven’t gotten any smarter about entry-level salaries than I was more than 30 years ago. NerdWallet surveyed 8,000 new grads who entered the job market between 2012 and 2015, in addition to 700 employers. Only a little over a third of new grads, 38%, said they had tried to negotiate their pay when they got their first offer.

The survey also showed that those who didn’t try were leaving money on the table. Most employers surveyed told NerdWallet they expected job candidates to ask for more money and three-quarters of hiring managers said they had room to increase their salary offers by 5% to 10%.

After you’ve been given a number, Gaglini suggests the following script: “That’s great news, thank you for the offer, you’ve made my day. I was just wondering if I could ask you a quick question. Might there be some flexibility in the starting salary?” If the employer asks how much more you want to make, again let him name the figure. Say, “I was wondering what you might be able to do.”

Why not try to get more money from that first offer? Like me, most students don’t realize they can, and they don’t know how to negotiate, says Boston College’s associate director of employer relations Louis Gaglini. He always counsels students to do lots of research on their potential job before they even go on their first interview, which should include extensive salary research on sites like Glassdoor, PayScale and Salary.com. Tim Luzader, who runs Purdue University’s career office, encourages his counselees to use LinkedIn to find Purdue alumni who have jobs at the students’ potential employers and to contact them for intelligence on starting salary ranges.

 

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Both Gaglini and Luzader advise students to ask for more money. Even if the offer is at the upper end of what the student has gleaned about starting salaries, it doesn’t hurt to try. But candidate should stick to the rule I’ve written in many other columns: Do not be the first to name a number. If the hiring manager asks you how much you want to make, say you’re thrilled about the job, that you’re sure you can reach an agreement on pay and that you want to make a competitive salary. Pay should be the last thing you negotiate once you have an offer.

After you’ve been given a number, Gaglini suggests the following script: “That’s great news, thank you for the offer, you’ve made my day. I was just wondering if I could ask you a quick question. Might there be some flexibility in the starting salary?” If the employer asks how much more you want to make, again let him name the figure. Say, “I was wondering what you might be able to do.”

If the answer to your initial question is “No,” Gaglini suggests trying to negotiate for other benefits, like a signing bonus or extra vacation days. I think it’s also a good idea to request a salary review within six months.

Luzader agrees with this approach, though he counsels students who’ve done their homework to be more assertive. For instance if the hiring manager offers $40,000, the candidate can say, “In working through the information in the Purdue career center, I learned that the range for this position is usually $42,000 to $46,000.” Says Luzader, “It’s OK to be specific if they’ve done their homework.”

What if the student has a competing offer? Gaglini says candidates should tread carefully. “It’s dangerous to share what another organization is offering and to use that as leverage at the entry level,” he says. “That can really damage your relationship with a potential employer.” Bosses just don’t expect that at the entry level, he says. But Luzader disagrees, at least in most cases. “They can say, ‘I have another offer, it’s also in Chicago, but there’s a $3,500 gap between what you’re offering and the other job.”

Both Gaglini and Luzader agree that it’s important to tread carefully and to listen closely to what the hiring manager says. In one instance Luzader had a student lose out on a job because he was too pushy and he insensitively used email to make demands. “His email looked more like a ransom note than a negotiation,” says Luzader. The email had five bullet points, including a salary demand. “It just sounded like this person was very entitled, almost like they were a free agent for a major league team.”

In the NerdWallet survey, 90% of hiring managers said they had never taken back an offer because an entry-level candidate had tried to negotiate and only 6% said that they were never willing to negotiate salary with new hires.
According to NerdWallet, “an employee who successfully asks for a 5% salary bump on a $40,000 job offer when she is 22, for instance, will make an extra $170,000 by the time she retires at 65.” That’s based on annual 3% salary growth. Though it’s safe to say that virtually no one getting hired out of college today will stay in the same job for 45 years. Still, if you make more money in your first job and leave after even a short time, the confidence a good salary instills will help you negotiate for more in your next job.

Sad to say, but not surprising, NerdWallet found that entry-level women were less likely to negotiate for more money from first job offers than men. Only 34% of women negotiated versus 44% of men. But there is a silver lining for women: when they did ask for a higher base salary, they had the same level of success, 80%, as men.

The takeaway: Do your research, try to ask for more money by posing questions like “Is there flexibility?” rather than making demands, and listen carefully to what the hiring manager says. But do try to negotiate a better salary offer in your first job.

 

Forbes.com | May 6, 2015 | Susan Adams

#Strategy: How to Cope with a Disorganized Boss…You Can Protect your #Career,& your Team, even IF your #Manager is Constantly Dropping Balls

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An ineffective boss might get fired. So might a bullying boss. A disorganized boss, however, can linger in an organization causing trouble for years. He can be perfectly nice, so no obvious alarm bells go off. The work gets done, but only because everyone reporting to him works around the clock before deadlines. “Having to deal with conflicting priorities can be extremely stressful,” says Richard Wellins, senior vice president of Development Dimensions International and coauthor of the new book Your First Leadership Job.

Messy Desk

Unfortunately, the modern workplace isn’t exactly helping managers on the organization front. Copious emails and changing conditions mean that “it’s much easier to become disorganized even if you’re not a disorganized person,” says Wellins. If you’re laboring under a disorganized boss, here’s how to make life better for yourself and your team.

OFFER TO HELP

Some disorganized bosses simply have too much on their plate, and haven’t yet mastered the skill of delegation. So ask to be delegated to. Wellins suggests saying, “I’d like to help you be successful. I see that as one of my roles. Are there things I can help you with, where I can add value to what you need to get done?”

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SCHEDULE REGULAR MEETINGS

In high-functioning situations, no one needs a meeting to report that she’s still doing her job. If you have a disorganized boss, though, “regular meetings can minimize chaos in the workplace,” says Wellins.

Michael Lee Stallard, a consultant, speaker, and author of the new book Connection Culture, suggests making these “W3” meetings: figuring out what, who, when. Take notes on these answers. “I’m a big believer in getting them in writing,” he says. “That brings clarity.”

ASK FOR EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED

If your boss is a bottleneck to your team achieving its goals on time, then don’t wait for information or approval to come to you. Go in with a list of exactly what you need. Try not to leave without getting it.

EMBRACE THE DIGEST FORMAT

One reason bosses get disorganized is that they have five teams cc-ing them on every email. Propose sending one daily email with the highlights. Even better? Reach an agreement with your boss’s other direct reports to do the same.

BE AN EXAMPLE OF ORGANIZATION

If your boss’s disorganization stems from stress, then “trying to step in and be a supportive confidant, as much as your boss will let you, will really help,” says Stallard. Your boss is probably not trying to drop balls, so being the ball that never gets dropped will help you become a trusted colleague. People also tend to reflect those around them, so being extremely organized yourself can set the tone.

HAVE BACKUP PLANS

In the workplace, as in chess, the masters think a few moves ahead. Your boss has given you a deadline. What would you do if he moved it? If you need some vital piece of information and your boss doesn’t come through, how else will you get it? “Sometimes you can work around the boss in ways that will help the boss,” says Stallard. It isn’t fair, but you can keep performing even without the support you want. Finding other trusted mentors in your organization is a wise move in general. A broad network gives you options.

CONSIDER DIRECT FEEDBACK

We all have weak spots, and your disorganized boss might be trying to improve. If you sense that this is the case, you can bring up what specifically would help you. If the situation seems hopeless, though, you may eventually need to enlist help from higher up. Company leaders generally do want to know when there’s a problem somewhere down the line. “If team members don’t communicate, there goes the company,” says Jenny Ta, CEO of Sqeeqee, a social commerce platform. So “don’t be afraid to knock on my door. If you’re afraid to knock on my door, write it on a slip of paper and slip it under my door.” That’s preferable to whole teams walking out the door because they can’t stand the stress.

Fastcompany.com | May 6, 2015 | 

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time (Portfolio, June 9, 2015), What the …

#Strategy: The Best Way to Get the Truth Out of a Job Candidate…The Single Most Important Thing you Could Do as an Organization is #Hire the Right People.

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Last week hedge fund manager Jason H. Karp explained during the Milken Institute’s Global Conference that his company’s personality assessment helps reveal positive and negative attributes in job candidates. He went on to say that the personality traits he looks for the most in traders and analysts are openness to change and grit (or resilience).

Man in suit sitting in dark room illuminated only by light from a lamp and looking in camera

“I would argue that the single most important thing you could do as an organization is hire the right people,” Frederick Morgeson, an organizational psychology expert and professor of management at Michigan State University, tells Business Insider. And a key way to do that, he argues, is by investing time, energy, and money into properly conducting personality assessments.

Morgeson says what’s truly unique and commendable about Karp’s tactic is his clear understanding of what he needs for the job and the company. This is the crucial first step to conducting personality assessments the right way.

Why do personality assessments matter?

The point of personality assessments, Morgeson says, is to get an idea of what traits someone possesses and what types of behaviors they engage in so you can assess how well they match up to the traits you believe are really important for success in the job and in the organization.

Questions like, “To what extent do you like trying new or different things?” and, “Tell me about a time when you had to try something new,” for example, would indicate a job candidate’s level of openness to new experiences and change.

job interview

Morgeson points out that if a company hires someone who makes between $50,000 and $60,000 a year, over the course of a 20-year career, that’s at least a million-dollar investment in that person.

According to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia University and CEO of personality profiling company Hogan Assessment Systems, when tests are scientifically validated, they are better at predicting future performance than interviews, references, and résumés.

Here are the steps you need to take to get the most out of your own company’s personality assessments:

1. Understand your needs.

The first step to personality assessments is figuring out your company’s values, missions, and the needs for the job.

“If you don’t do the work as an organization to make sure that those traits that you’re trying to find in your candidates are in fact the right traits for your organization and for the jobs they’re doing, you’re going to have problems,” Morgeson says.

Businesses need to ask:

  1. What is is going to take to be successful in the job?
  2. What is it going to take to be successful in the organization?

Only once these ideal traits are clear can a business proceed to the next step of assessing candidates’ personalities and their fit.

 

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2. Pick an assessment.

There are thousands of different personality assessments available on the market today. One most people have heard of is the controversial Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test.

Karp said his company looks for openness to change, which is one of the “Big Five” personality traits, another common model for assessing potential new hires.

Collectively, these traits are often referred to with the acronym OCEAN, which stands for openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Even though Karp said that neuroticism could lead to what he calls a “nuisance hire” — someone that has potential, but could be a drain on the company — he admitted that he himself exhibits this trait.

Often people will exhibit a mixture of some of these personality traits, Morgeson says, but there are usually a few that stand out to assessors more than others.

interview

3. Beware of common mistakes.

Where companies often trip up, Morgeson explains, is not assessing these personality traits the right way.

“One of the things that the field [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][of organizational psychology] has struggled with is, we know these personality traits matter for how people perform, but how do we get at them, how do we measure them, how do we effectively assess them?”

Assessors could potentially ask the wrong kinds of questions to discern a personality trait.

“Even though they have an idea of what they want, they’re not engaging in a process that will really help them understand the candidates’ or the applicants’ standing on those characteristics,” he says.

Critics of personality assessments also claim it’s too easy to game these tests. John Rust, director of Cambridge University’s Psychometrics Centre, told the economist that because the expected answers to these assessments are often clear, companies wind up “selecting the people who know what the right answers are.”

Morgeson admits this is especially problematic when using these assessments for hiring, since job applicants are more motivated to lie and tell interviewers what they want to hear. But good personality assessors have ways to know when someone’s lying, he says:

  1. They build a lie/cheat scale into the assessment. One way to do this is to ask a candidate if they endorse something that doesn’t exist. If they answer in the affirmative, this raises the question, what else are they lying about?
  2. When a potential hire’s answers seem too good to be true, they follow up with them about it in some kind of interview process.
  3. They reach out to the candidate’s references and ask them to answer the same question about the job candidate and see if the responses line up.

“The whole point of the hiring process is you’re trying to learn the most you can about an applicant in as many different ways as possible,” Morgeson says.

Businessinsider.com | May 5, 2015 | RACHEL GILLETT

http://www.businessinsider.com/best-way-to-get-the-truth-out-of-potential-hires-2015-5#ixzz3ZIMTjJ5F[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

#Leadership: 4 Ways To Drive Opportunities To Your Company With #Executive Branding…Understanding Executive #Branding is Like Unlocking the Secret to Getting Picked 1st in Middle School Dodgeball. It Centers on 2 Things: Being Good & Being Liked

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Understanding executive branding is like unlocking the secret to getting picked first in middle school dodgeball. It centers on two things: being good and being liked. Similarly, executive branding verifies your value in the field and creates familiarity that enhances trust between you and potential customers.

shutterstock_142999720

As Bryan Kramer puts it, people want a natural human-to-human connection with brands. Unfortunately, companies now have less time to form that bond. In fact, most B2B buyers don’t talk to a sales rep until they’re 57 percent of the way through their purchasing decision.

With executive branding, however, the audience feels connected to the individuals behind the company long before the first point of contact. You can spark conversations with prospects and influence their decisions before they’re ready to reach out to you.

Forging a Connection Through Executive Branding

Thought leadership has been a core part of Influence & Co.’s success; we’ve consistently shared this information in whitepapers like this one. From the start, we’ve positioned our leaders as subject-matter experts. And we’ve seen firsthand how executive branding can build the company brand, dissolve trust barriers, attract and nurture leads throughout the marketing funnel, and keep us top of mind when prospects and customers are ready to buy or provide a referral.

We recently had a large account sign up for our services because its leader read one of my articles, “Be A Leader In Your Industry: Help Others.” It was a simple yet transparent view of what I had done to help grow the company by helping people.

I received several emails from readers who have attracted more opportunities since adopting this mentality. But it also begs the question: Would people have related in the same way if the “help others” message had come from my company?

Looking at it from the other extreme, a company that blasts out a PR blitz to confess its wrongdoings won’t have the same effect. By openly discussing Target’s struggles, Jeff Jones has helped humanize the brand because the audience can sympathize with him in a way that doesn’t translate with brand-sponsored messaging. I use this example a lot because there just aren’t other brands that will take the leap like this, so there aren’t a lot of examples out there.

 

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Hone Your Executive Branding With These 4 Strategies

Executive branding doesn’t just draw you closer to your audience; it also positions your company as an authority in its industry. Some companies do this through product development, but when a company can monetize key employees’ expertise through content creation and speaking engagements, the brand-building effects are astounding.

Beth Comstock and Dave Kerpen are two illustrative examples of executive branding done right. Dave has combined consistent publishing, paid speaking engagements, and book writing to fuel both his Likeable Media brand and his growing startup, Likeable Local. Beth has also positioned herself as a prominent figure in the marketing world by offering valuable content online and makingmemorable speeches.

As a result, both have become revered industry leaders and have driven continuous opportunities back to their companies. There’s a huge size difference between Likable Media and General Electric, but the results are the same. Having leaders who authentically engage with your target audience makes a big difference.

You, too, can reap the benefits of a comprehensive executive branding strategy by promoting your key employees through these four strategies:

1. Create thought leadership content. Publishing guest-contributed content is the core initiative that nurtures every other executive branding opportunity. If you’re consistently building a web of content that keeps you top of mind, it will be a catalyst to more speaking, networking, and publishing opportunities.

2. Secure speaking engagements. Speaking is one of the best ways to authentically engage your audience. From the moment you walk into a conference or event, others perceive you as an authoritative figure. If you tailor your speech to the right audience and have the content to back it up, your audience will walk away with a renewed level of trust in you that will drive valuable opportunities your way.

3. Network. Every leader can verify the brand-building ripple effect of strategic networking. The more connected you stay within your industry, the more your brand will shine. The cornerstone of any effective networking strategy is treating people well, helping them achieve their goals, and connecting them with other valuable people.

4. Publish books. The notoriety that comes with authoring a book can feel tempting, but this strategy should be last on your executive branding list. Until you tackle thought leadership content, speaking engagements, and networking, don’t try to justify the time it takes to write a valuable book. However, when you’re ready, there are some unique opportunities that come from publishing a book.

The objective of any branding strategy boils down to establishing a human-to-human connection. People don’t want to have a conversation, eat dinner, or share secrets with a company; they

want to do those things with real people. Executive branding is the secret ingredient that will position you as a likeable industry figure and encourage prospects to always choose you first.

John Hall is the CEO of Influence & Co., a company that specializes in expertise extraction and knowledge management that are used to fuel marketing efforts.

Forbes.com | May 3, 2015 | John Hall

#Strategy: What I Learned About Life After Interviewing 80 Highly Successful People…I Don’t Think I Spoke to a Single Person who Believed in Setting Personal Goals. But 100% of the People I Spoke to Wanted to Solve a Problem for the Many

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“You interrupt too much,” people email me. “Let your guests finish talking.” But I can’t help it. I get curious. I want to know! Now!  Over the past year I interviewed about 80 guests for my podcast. My only criteria: I was fascinated by some aspect of each person.

Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel

I didn’t limit myself by saying “each one had to be an entrepreneur” or “had to be a success.”

I just wanted to talk to anyone who made me curious about their lives. I spoke to entrepreneurs, comedians, artists, producers, astronauts, writers, rappers, and even this country’s largest beer brewer.

Will I do it for the next year? Maybe. It’s hard.

Sometimes I would pursue a guest for six months with no reply and then they would call and say, “Can you do right now?” and I’d change all plans with kids, Claudia, business.

I had no favorites. They were all great. I interviewed Peter Thiel, Coolio, Mark Cuban, Arianna Huffington, Amanda Palmer, Tony Robbins, and many more. I’m really grateful they all wanted to talk to me.

Podcasting, to be honest, was just an excuse for me to call up whoever I wanted to call and ask them all sorts of personal questions about their lives. If I wanted to talk about “Star Wars,” I called the author of a dozen Star Wars novels.

If I wanted to talk about Twisted Sister, I called up the founder of the band. If I wanted to talk sex I called the women who ran the “Ask Women” podcast.

I wanted to know at what point were they at their worst. And how they got better. Each person created a unique life. I wanted to know how they did it. I was insanely curious.

As Coolio told me, “You got me to reveal some deep stuff I didn’t want to reveal. Kudos.” Tony Robbins had to literally shake himself at one point and say, “Wait, how did we end up talking about this?” I can’t help it. I want to know.

Here are the most important things I learned. I can’t specify which person I learned what from. It hurts my head when I think about it because many of the 80 said the exact same thing about how they ended up where they were.

Here is some of what they said:

A) A life is measured in decades.

Too many people want happiness, love, money, connections, everything yesterday. Me too. I call it “the disease.” I feel often I can paint over a certain emptiness inside if only…if only…I have X.

But a good life is like the flame of a bonfire. It builds slowly, and because it’s slow and warm it caresses the heart instead of destroys it.

 

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B) A life is measured by what you did TODAY, even this moment.

This is the opposite of “A” but the same. You get success in decades by having success now.

That doesn’t mean money now. It means, “Are you doing your best today?”

Everyone worked at physical health, improving their friendships and connections with others, being creative, being grateful. Every day.

For those who didn’t, they quickly got sick, depressed, anxious, fearful. They had to change their lives. When they made that change, universally they all said to me, “that’s when it all started.”

C) Focus is not important, but Push is (reinvention).

Very few people have just one career. And for every career, it’s never straight up.

When you have focus, it’s like saying, “I’m just going to learn about only one thing forever.” But “the push” is the ability to get up every day, open up the shades, and push through all the things that make you want to go back to sleep.

Even if it means changing careers 10 times. Or changing your life completely. Just pushing forward to create a little more life inside yourself.

Compound life is much more powerful than compound interest.

D) Give without thinking of what you will receive.

I don’t think I spoke to a single person who believed in setting personal goals. But 100% of the people I spoke to wanted to solve a problem for the many.

It doesn’t matter how you give each day. It doesn’t even matter how much. But everyone wanted to give and eventually they were given back.

E) Solving hard problems is more important than overcoming failure.

The outside world is a mirror of what you have on the inside. If Thomas Edison viewed his 999 attempts at creating a lightbulb a failure then he would’ve given up. His inside was curious. His inside viewed his “attempts” as experiments. Then he did #1000. Now we can see in the dark.

Dan Ariely was burned all over his body and used that experience to research the psychology of pain and ultimately the psychology of behavior and how we can make better decisions.

Tony Robbins lost everything when his marriage ended, but he came back by coaching thousands of people.

It’s how you view the life inside you that creates the life outside of you. Every day.

tony robbinsCourtesy of Tony RobbinsTony Robbins.

F) Art and success and love is about connecting all the dots.

Here are some dots: The very personal sadness sitting inside of you. The things you learn. The things you read about. The things you love. Connect the dots. Give it to someone.

Now you just gave birth to a legacy that will continue beyond you.

G) It’s not business, it’s personal.

Nobody succeeded with a great idea.

Everyone succeeded because they built networks within networks of connections, friends, colleagues all striving towards their own personal goals, all trusting each other, and working together to help each other succeed.

This is what happens only over time. This is why giving creates a bigger world because you can never predict what will happen years later.

Biz Markie described to me how he helped a 7-year-old kid named Jay-Z with his lyrics.

Peter Thiel’s ex employees created tens of billions of dollars worth of companies.

Marcus Lemonis saves businesses every week on his show “The Profit.” It doesn’t come by fixing their accounting. It comes from fixing the relationships with the partners and the customers and the investors.

The best way to create a great business over time: Every day send one thank you letter to someone from your past. People (me) often say you can’t look back at the past. But this is the one way you can. You create the future by thanking the past.

H) You can’t predict the outcome, you can only do your best.

Hugh Howey thought he would write novels that only his family would read. So he wrote ten of them. Then he wrote “Wool,” which he self-published and has sold millions of copies and Ridley Scott is making the movie.

Clayton Anderson applied to be an astronaut for 15 years in a row and was rejected each time until the 16th.

cookin with cooliowww.amazon.comCoolio.

Coolio wrote lyrics down every day for 17 years before having a hit. Noah Kagan was fired from Facebook and Mint without making a dime before starting his own business. Wayne Dyer quit his secure job as a tenured professor, put a bunch of his books in car and drove across the country selling them in every bookstore. Now he’s sold over 100,000,000 books.

Sometimes when I have conversations with these people they want to jump right to the successful parts but I stop them. I want to know the low points. The points where they had to start doing their best. What got them to that point.

I) The same philosophy of life should work for an emperor and a slave.

Ryan Holiday told me that both Marcus Aurelius, an emperor, and Epictetus, a slave, both subscribed to the idea of stoicism. You can’t predict pleasure or pain. You can only strive for knowledge and giving and fairness and health each day.

Many people write me it’s easy for so-and-so to say that now that he’s rich. Every single person I spoke to started off in a gutter or worse. (Well, most of them.)

Luck is certainly a component, but in chess there’s a saying (and this applies to anything) “it’s funny how always the best players seem to be lucky.”

J) The only correct path is the path correct for you.

Scott Adams tried about 20 different careers before he settled on drawing Dilbert. Now, he’s in 2000 papers, has written Dilbert books, Dilbert shows, Dilbert everything. Everyone was shocked when Judy Joo gave up a Wall St. career to go back to cooking school. Now she’s on the Food Channel as an “iron chef.”

Don’t let other people choose your careers. Don’t get locked in other people’s prisons they’ve set up just for you. Personal freedom starts from the inside but ultimately turns you into a giant, freeing you from the chains the little people spent years tying around you.

K) Many moments of small, positive, personal interactions build an extraordinary career.

Often people think that you have to fight your way to the top. But for everyone I spoke to it was small kindnesses over a long period of time that built the ladder to success. I think I’m starting to sound like a cliche on this. But it’s only a cliche because it’s true.

L) Taking care of yourself comes first.

Kamal Ravikant picked himself off a suicidal bottom by constantly repeating “I love you” to himself. Charlie Hoehn cured his anxiety by using every moment he could to play.

I’ve written before: The average kid laughs 300 times a day. The average adult…5.

Something knifed our ability to smile. Do everything you can to laugh, to create laughter for others, and then what can possibly be bad about today? I think that’s why I try to interview so many comedians are comedy writers. They make me laugh. It’s totally selfish.

M) The final answer: People do end up loving what they succeed at, or they succeed at what they love.

mark cuban shark tank ABC/Michael DesmondMark Cuban.

Mark Cuban said, “My passion was to get rich!” But I don’t really believe him. He loved computers so he created a software company. Then he wanted to watch Ohio basketball in Pittsburgh so he created Broadcast.com. I worked with Broadcast.com a little bit back in 1997. They were crusaders about bringing video to the Internet.

Sure, he wanted to use that to get rich. Because he knew better than anyone then how to let a good idea lead him to success.

But deep down he was a little kid who wanted to watch his favorite basketball. And now what does he do? He owns a basketball team.

N) Anybody, at any age

The ages of the people I spoke to ranged from 20 to 75. Each is still participating every day in the worldwide conversation. I asked Dick Yuengling from Yuengling beer why he even bothered to talk to me. He’s 75 and runs the biggest American-owned brewery worth about $2 billion. He laughed and said, “Well, you asked me.”

I just realized this list can go on for another 100 items.

The specifics of success. How to overcome hardships. How any one person can move society forward.

Down to even what are the most productive hours of the day, what’s the one word most important for success, and what we can look forward to over the next century and maybe 100 other things.

Then I learned many things about myself.

Most of the people I asked to come on my podcast said, “NO!” I told Claudia the other day I haven’t been rejected this much since freshman year of high school. I had to re-learn how to deal with so much rejection.

I’ve always been a big reader but never as much as this year. I read everything by all the guests.

Some weeks I felt like I was spending 10 hours a day preparing for podcasts. I learned to interview, to listen, to prepare, to pursue, to entertain, to educate.

Podcasting seems like it’s becoming an industry, or a business idea, or something worth looking at by entrepreneurs or investors. I have no clue about that.

For me, podcasting this year was just about calling anyone I wanted to call and talking to them. I felt like a little boy interviewing his heroes.

I highly recommend finding ways to call people for almost no reason. I learned a huge amount.

But it was hard.

It’s one of those things where I can say, “I don’t know if I can ever do that again.” But I also know I’m probably going to say the same thing next year.

This article originally appeared at The Altucher Confidential. Copyright 2014.

 

Businessinsider.com | December 29, 2014 |  James Altucher

http://www.businessinsider.com/life-lessons-from-highly-successful-people-2014-12#ixzz3ZCbN8PyZ

#Strategy: 14 Lies we Tell Ourselves that Keep Us from Success…The Mind is a Wonderful Thing. It’s also a Complete Liar that Constantly Tries to Convince us Not to Take Actions we Know are Good for Us, & Stops Many Great Changes in our Lives

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The mind is a wonderful thing. It’s also a complete liar that constantly tries to convince us not to take actions we know are good for us, and stops many great changes in our lives. Scumbag mind.

Change

I’ve had to learn to watch these rationalizations and excuses very carefully, in order to make the changes I’ve made in my life: a healthier diet, regular exercise, meditation, minimalism, writing daily, getting out of debt, quitting smoking, and so on.  If I hadn’t learned these excuses, and how to counter them, I would never have stuck to these changes. In fact, I failed many times before 2005 (when I started changing my life), because these excuses had complete power over me.

Let’s expose the cowardly mind’s excuses and rationalizations once and for all.

First, the main principle: the mind wants comfort, and is afraid of discomfort and change. The mind is used to its comfort cocoon, and anytime we try to push beyond that comfort zone very far or for very long, the mind tries desperately to get back into the cocoon. At any cost, including our long-term health and happiness.

OK, with that in mind, let’s go into the excuses:

1. I can’t do it

It seems too hard, so we think we can’t stick to the change. We don’t believe in ourselves. This can be countered from the fact that many other people no more capable than us have done it.

For example, Oprah ran a marathon a little before I started training for my first marathon, and so I told myself, “If Oprah can do it, so can I!” I was right.

 

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2. He/she can do it, but that doesn’t apply to me

Just because someone else can do it, doesn’t mean we can, right? We look for reasons they can do it but we can’t — maybe he can be a minimalist because he has no kids, or is a freelancer rather than someone with a real job.

Maybe she’s way, way fitter than I am, so she can run a marathon. Maybe she doesn’t have all the obligations I have, or has a supportive spouse, or doesn’t have a crippling health condition. OK, fine, it’s easy to find excuses: but look at all the other people who have worse obstacles than you who’ve done it.

I have 6 kids and still managed to change a lot of things in my life. Stories abound of people with disabilities or illnesses who overcame their obstacles to achieve amazing things. Your obstacles can be overcome.

3. I need my ___

Fill in the blank: I need my coffee, my cheese, my soda, my TV shows, my car, my shoe collection … these are things we convince ourselves we can’t live without, so we can’t make a change like becoming vegan or eating healthier or unschooling our kids or simplifying our lives or going car-free.

And I’ve made these excuses myself, but they all turned out to be lies. I didn’t need any of that. The only things you really need are basic food, water, clothing, shelter, and other people for social needs. Everything else is not a real need.

4. Life is meant to be enjoyed

Sure, I agree with this statement (as many of us would) but the problem is this is used to justify all kinds of crappy behavior. Might as well scarf down those Doritos and Twinkies, because hey, life is meant to be enjoyed, right? No.

You can do without junk food and still enjoy life. You can exercise and enjoy it. You can give up pretty much anything and still enjoy life, if you learn to see almost any activity as enjoyable.smartphone sleepBGR

5. I need comfort

This might also be true, but we can push ourselves into more discomfort than we let ourselves believe. We can be a bit cold, instead of needing to be at the perfect comfortable temperature. We can do hard exercise, instead of needing to lay around on the couch.

We can write that thing we’ve been procrastinating on — it might be hard, but we can push through that. When our minds seek comfort, don’t let them run — push a little bit outside the comfort zone, and begin to be OK with a bit of discomfort.

6. I don’t know how

This is also true, but you can learn. Start with a little at a time, and learn how to deal with this new change. Do some research online. Watch some videos. Ask people online how they dealt with it. This is easily overcome with a little effort and practice. In fact, if you do it now, and learn a little at a time, then you’ll be able to do away with this pesky excuse.

7. I can do it later

Sure, you can always do it later … but your later self will also feel the same way. Why should the later self be more disciplined than your current self? In fact, because you’re allowing yourself to slide now, you’re building a habit of procrastination and actually making is less likely that your future self will be more disciplined.

Instead, do it now, unless there’s something more important that you need to do … don’t let yourself slide just because you don’t feel like it.

8. One time won’t hurt

This is so tempting, because it’s kind of true — one time won’t hurt. Assuming, that is, that it’s only one time. One bite of chocolate cake, one missed workout, one time procrastinating instead of writing. Unfortunately, it’s never actually just one time. One time means your brain now knows it can get away with this excuse, and the next “one time” leads to another, until you’re not actually sticking to something.

Make a rule: never ever believe the “one time” excuse. I did this with smoking (“Not One Puff Ever”) and it worked. If you’re going to allow yourself a bite or two of chocolate cake, decide beforehand and build it into your plan (“I will allow myself a fist-sized serving of sweets once every weekend”) and stick to that plan, rather than deciding on the fly, when your resistance is weak.lying down gymFlickr / istolethetv

9. I don’t feel like it

Well, true. You don’t feel like working hard. Who does? Letting the rule of “I’ll do it when feel like it” dictate your life means you’ll never write that book, never build that business, never create anything great, never have healthy habits. Create a plan that’s doable, and execute it.

When the rationalizations like this come up, don’t believe them. Everyone is capable of doing a hard workout even when they’re not in the mood. Everyone can overcome their internal resistance.

10. I’m tired

Yep, me too. I still did my heavy squat workout today. There is truth to needing rest, and resting when you need it (listen to your body), but this is usually the mind trying to weasel out of something uncomfortable. There’s a difference between being exhausted and needing some rest, and being the little tired we all feel every afternoon. Push through the latter.

11. I deserve a reward/break

We all deserve that tasty treat, or a day off. I’m not saying you shouldn’t give yourself a reward or break. But if you make this rationalization your rule, you’ll always be on a break. You’ll always be giving yourself rewards, and never sticking to the original plan.

Here’s what I do instead: I see sticking to my plan as the reward itself. Going on a run isn’t the thing I have to get through to get a reward — the run is the reward.

12. Wouldn’t it be nice to stop?

This again is our mind wanting to run from discomfort, and of course it’s true — it would be nice to stop if you’re pushing into a discomfort zone for too long. The thing is, the implication is that it would be better to stop, because it would be nice … but that’s a lie.

It would be easier to stop, but often it’s better to continue pushing. This excuse almost beat me when I tried to run my 50-mile ultramarathon last December, because honestly it would have been much nicer to stop and not finish the race, especially in the last 10 miles or so. I pushed through, and found out I was tougher than I thought.Marathon RuningReuters

13. The result you’re going for isn’t important

If you’re trying to run a marathon, this is phrased like, “It’s not that important that I finish this”. I’ve used this excuse for learning languages (it doesn’t matter if I learn this) or programming or any number of things I wanted to learn. I’ve used it for writing and exercise and eating healthy food. And while the result might not be that important, the truth is that the process is very important.

If you stick with a process that will be better for you in the long run, then you will be better off. But if you let yourself go just because you are uncomfortable and at this moment care more for your comfort than the goal you set out for, you’ll have lots of problems. The goal isn’t important, but learning to stick to things when you’re uncomfortable is extremely important.

14. I’m afraid

Now, this is the most honest excuse there is — most of us don’t want to admit we’re afraid to pursue something difficult. But it’s also a weaselly way out of discomfort — just because you’re afraid doesn’t mean you can’t do something. You can.

I’ve done tons of things I’m afraid of — mostly creating things that I was worried I’d fail at. And while the fear sometimes came true — I didn’t do too well sometimes — the act of pushing through the fear was incredibly important and I learned a lot each time.

I’ve used all of these excuses hundreds of times each, so don’t think I’ve overcome them all. And you can use them in the future too. There’s nothing wrong with giving in sometimes.

The key is to learn whether they’re true, and see your pattern. Here’s what I’ve done:

  1. Notice the excuse. It has way more power if it works on you in the background.
  2. Try to have an answer for the excuse beforehand — anticipate it.
  3. If you give in, that’s OK, but recognize that you’re giving in to a lame excuse. Be aware of what you’re doing.
  4. After giving in, see what the results are. Are you happier? Is your life better? Was it worth it giving in to discomfort?
  5. Learn from those results. If you pushed through and are happy about it, remember that. If you gave in to excuses, and didn’t like the result, remember that.

If you consciously practice this process, you’ll get better at recognizing and not believing these lies. And then, bam, you’ve got your mind working for you instead of against you.

This article originally appeared at Zen Habits. Copyright 2015. Follow Zen Habits on Twitter.

Businessinsider.com | May 2, 2015 | LEO BABAUTA, ZEN HABITS

http://zenhabits.net/bs/#ixzz3ZBi2Cv4w

#Leadership: How the Wrong People Get Promoted & How to Change It…Research Revels that Companies Consistently Choose the Wrong People for #Management Roles. Here’s what you Can Do to Avoid the Same Mistake

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Have you ever quit a job just to get away from a bad boss? If you have, it turns out you’re in sizable company. According to a April 2015 Gallup study, one in two U.S. workers have at some point in their career felt compelled to make that same difficult choice.

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Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? Don't be that guy.

Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? Don’t be that guy.

That the business world may be filled with managers who unwittingly drive their people away is at the heart of Gallup’s 50-plus page report “State Of The American Manager: Analytics And Advice For Leaders”. What the research reveals is that organizations consistently choose the wrong people for management roles, and pay dearly for it through poor engagement and costly turnover—and the inevitable decline in overall performance.

But Gallup also discovered what distinguishes the very best managers—new and truly groundbreaking insight into the talents, motivations, and practices of bosses who make workers want to stay.

Here are five of the most significant findings of the report:

1. THE MAJORITY OF MANAGERS ARE WRONG FOR THEIR ROLES

Perhaps the most important—and disruptive—conclusion from the study is that too many companies have a flawed methodology for selecting people into management.

How? They base hiring and promotion decisions on an employee’s past experience, and then reward them by giving them an entirely different role. According to the research, at least 80% of the time this methodology backfires.

“It is the rite of passage in most organizations that if you are very good at your job—whether it be in sales, or accounting, or any number of specialties—and stay around a long time, the next step in your progression is to be promoted to manager,” says Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief scientist. “But the talents that make a person successful in a previous, non-management role are almost never the same ones that will make them excel as a manager.”

The Gallup study states pay structures at most companies reinforce this career progression, and must be redesigned to ensure employees are given more than one path to earning higher compensation and prestige. According to the report, organizations back themselves into a corner when they tie pay to managerial status creating an environment in which employees compete for roles to which they’re not a fit.

 

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2. GREAT MANAGERS POSSESS A RARE COMBINATION OF FIVE TALENTS

Gallup studied individual managers at numerous organizations, and discovered those managers who most consistently drove high engagement, loyalty, productivity, profit, and service levels all shared five uncommon talents:

  • They motivate their employees.
  • They assert themselves to overcome obstacles.
  • They create a culture of accountability.
  • They build trusting relationships.
  • They make informed, unbiased decisions for the good of their team and organization.

Gallup confirmed this combination of innate talent is so rare that it exists in about only one out of 10 people. They also believe another two out of 10 people have some of these five talents, and can become great managers with the right coaching and development.

Ironically, Harter is convinced that the most highly talented manager prospects are hiding in plain sight within organizations, and the use of some predictive analytics tool can help them make more informed hiring decisions. The rewards for doing so are impressive. Companies already employing these disciplines have realized a 48% increase in profitability, a 22% increase in productivity, and 30% jump in engagement scores, the Gallup report notes.

3. MANAGERS HAVE THE GREATEST IMPACT ON ENGAGEMENT

Hiring the right people for manager roles represents the single greatest opportunity facing organizations today simply because of the upside it signifies. According to the study, managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. When a company raises employee engagement levels consistently across every business unit, everything that matters to an organization’s long-term viability gets better.

Gallup has studied engagement since the 1990s, and has repeatedly found that companies with happy and committed employees outperform all others in terms of business outcomes including absenteeism, turnover, innovation, and productivity. Getting the decision right in who you name manager and how you develop them is the most important decision any organizational leader can make, the report stresses. The best strategies in the world will likely fail in execution without the highly talented managers in place.

4. FEMALE MANAGERS ARE MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE AT DRIVING ENGAGEMENT

Another stunning finding is that employees of female managers on average are at least 6 percentage points more engaged than those who work for a male manager. In fact, out of the 12 different questions Gallup uses to diagnose a person’s engagement, employees of female managers outscore male managers on 11 of those items.

Only one out of three workers has a female boss today, yet women leaders eclipse their male counterparts in many of the ways known to inspire high levels of commitment, initiative, and loyalty in 21st-century workers. They more consistently cultivate the potential in their people by creating challenging assignments. They praise and value people for their efforts and contributions. They take steps to foster a positive and cooperative work environment.

In their 2013 book, The Athena Doctrine: How Women And The Men Who Think Like Them Will Rule The Future, authors Michael D’Antonio and John Gerzema note the skills required to thrive in today’s world—such as honesty, empathy, communication, appreciation, and collaboration—are widely regarded as being on the feminine side of human nature.

Gallup’s data suggests many of these same qualities have a significant and meaningful impact on driving engagement.

5. HIGH TALENT MANAGERS FOCUS ON STRENGTHS, NOT WEAKNESSES

Accentuating the positive behaviors and traits in people proves to be a wildly more successful approach to driving engagement than a well-intended focus on mitigating weakness, Gallup says.

In a study of more than 1,000 random U.S. workers, nearly two-thirds, or 61%, of employees who felt they had a manager who honored and intentionally amplified their positive characteristics were engaged –- twice the national average.

Overall, Gallup has discovered that the managers—male or female—who routinely motivate the greatest employee engagement have an instinct for investing emotionally in their people. Workers describe them as being more human and relatable—someone who cares about them personally and with whom they can discuss non-work related issues.

These same high-talent managers also make communication a priority. They hold regular meetings and interact with each employee in some way every single day. Simply put, they make their people feel valued and connected which has the direct effect of sending engagement soaring.

THE REWARDS OF A CARING MANAGER

With 70% of the working population admittedly disengaged in their jobs today, we’ve reached a crisis that’s not just harming organizational performance; it’s profoundly undermining human potential.

But we now realize there is a cure. If we accept the idea that every person working today deserves to have a supportive, caring, and effective manager—and we make that happen—the rewards will be simply inestimable.

 

Fastcompany.com | May 2015 | Mark C. Crowley 

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