New Assessment Tool Helps to Promote Better Teamwork

"By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day." -- Robert Frost

The eloquent American poet's words have a ring of truth to them – but they provide only one view of the boss's job. There are perspectives aplenty, and one in particular does not rely on the chief spending 12 or more hours every day toiling at work. It is this: The boss's goal instead is to develop employees so that everyone enjoys a productive, enjoyable and fulfilling workplace.

Let's pay a visit to an imaginary workplace. We will call it The Nirvana Company. Imagine a boss at Nirvana focusing energy and expertise on the quality of his or her relationships with employees. This boss would know, for example, whether an employee's decision-making style matched her own fast-paced method, or whether the worker preferred to ponder situations a while before making decisions. The boss would learn how best to manage that worker to get his very best decisions and the highest productivity. There's more – the boss would do this for every employee in the organization.

Does this scenario seem too good to be true? It doesn't have to be. In fact, Profiles offers an assessment that not only helps the boss work on relationships – it helps employees do the same thing.

Workplaces do exist in which supervisors and their direct reports know each other's work styles and use that knowledge to their own and the organization's advantage. And studies show that such managers and employees are highly productive and engaged. The reverse is also true: Managers who are out of step with employees often cause low productivity, low morale and high turnover. In fact, more people leave bosses than they do jobs.

The Profiles assessment that takes on this issue is Profiles WorkForce Compatibility™, and it combines insight into the characteristics that affect the boss-employee relationship with information on how unique individuals can best work together.

The strength of Profiles WorkForce Compatibility™ lies in two key areas: What it measures and what it provides as a result of its measurements. First, the measurements: Profiles WorkForce Compatibility™ examines seven important characteristics that define the relationship between an employee and the manager: self-assurance, self-reliance, conformity, optimism, decisiveness, objectivity and approach to learning. Once these are measured and analyzed for both boss and worker, each receives a report. The manager's report provides a detailed description of the differences between the two on each characteristic, as well as a "best-practice" working style for both the manager and the employee. A "Working Together" section gives ideas for managing this unique employee and a "Next Steps" section offers detailed instructions on how to proceed.

The Employee Report shows the worker his or her similarities to and differences from the boss, with ideas for making the work relationship smoother.

In short, Profiles WorkForce Compatibility™ helps both manager and employee to:

Communicate better

Spot conflicts before they occur

Successfully resolve problems that pop up

This assessment is neither magic nor a fairy tale – nor does it support the view of Robert Frost expressed above. It does require hard work and a commitment to rely more on facts than assumptions. But its strength is in its personalization of management strategy. The one-size-fits-all approach to management is out the window – good riddance.

The Management See-Saw

By Jan van der Hoop

Deadlines hinder management success.

Sounds absurd in a world where it seems things only get done because we have deadlines to work towards, doesn’t it? Bear with me.

Three decades ago companies decided that the path to sustainable success was to gut their organizations of successive layers of management that were deemed redundant, unproductive overhead. In many cases this was probably a valid assumption.

In order to pick up the slack, ‘management’ tasks such as project management, planning, budgeting, administration, and reporting all got pushed onto the plates of the few managers and supervisors who remained. They were forced to step up and pick up the work that was left to be done.

But in the process what got squeezed off overflowing plates were the activities that were, in Stephen Covey’s model, ‘Important but not Urgent’, things we gave value through lip service but rarely measured, had deadlines for or held managers accountable to such as the development and retention of talent, employee engagement, coaching, mentoring, or offering meaningful performance feedback.

The idealist in me wants to believe we can revert to a model where managers can and do find the time for these mission-critical activities, and where they fully appreciate the value of their efforts in these areas… but that’s pie-in-the-sky. Businesses can’t change their economic and cultural models overnight.

What can we do? We can put tools in the hands of managers and their direct reports that help them make the most of the scarce time they do have for 1:1 communication. Tools that jumpstart conversations about things that matter and that help people grow through understanding themselves and others better.

If you’re not using tools like the Profile XT and the Checkpoint 360 and showing managers how to use them effectively to strengthen your organization by spending even part of their day on the ‘important, not urgent’ activities, you are leaving your organization vulnerable.

Time To Relearn Some Old Tricks

Over the last three decades, we’ve seen business lurch through major cycles of delayering, ‘right-sizing’, and outsourcing. Managers have become ‘working managers’ with a full plate of tasks and responsibilities of their own – they are most often doers of things rather than managers of people – with the result that they no longer have the time or the bandwidth to do the thing that managers were supposed to be doing in the first place: be stewards and developers of your human capital.

Sure, companies implore their managers to coach and mentor, to train and develop, to offer regular performance feedback… but who has time? More to the point, who’s there to act as a role model? These are all skills and competencies that were forgotten in the ‘80’s when we restructured managers out of the ability to make their most important contribution.

Is there an impending talent shortage? Yes. In fact, it’s upon us. But viewed on a macro basis it’s not quite the headcount crisis many are decrying. The real problem is that for the last 30 years we’ve been able to go to market and buy people off the shelf who have just the right mix of education, skills and experience to plug into our organizations. The day of the ‘plug and play’ employee is behind us. From now on, the spoils will go to those organizations willing to relearn and master the lost art of identifying, nurturing and developing talent internally.

It will require resources, long-term thinking… and a willingness to rethink the role of the manager.I was a kid I started out in the hotel industry. It was a great place to learn about business and about people, and to hone many of the skills that have served me well over the course of my career. But then as now, the industry had a reputation for burning people out with long hours and low wages. To cope with the resulting turnover, the leading companies in the industry had mastered the art of maintaining staffing levels by ensuring they had a steady flow of talent growing, developing and moving up through the ranks.

Are Employee Engagement Levels Really That Important?

In 2006, Towers Perrin/ISR, one of the world’s premier employee research and consulting firms, conducted what it refers to as one of the most extensive Employee Engagement studies ever, culling from survey data spanning more than 664,000 employees at numerous company types across 50 countries worldwide.

To quote from the prestigious researcher’s own briefing, found at http://www.isrinsight.com:

“Previous ISR research found that companies with highly engaged employees have:

Lower staff turnover rates

Lower absenteeism

Higher customer satisfaction and loyalty

ISR’s latest research reveals the difference an engaged workforce can make to the financial performance of an organization.”

Specifically, ISR compared the financial performance of organisations with highly engaged workforces to their peers with a less-engaged workforce, over a one-year period. In ISR’s own words, the findings were “striking.”

The companies with high levels of Employee Engagement delivered:

19.2% increase in Operating Income (compared to companies with low levels of engagement experiencing a decline of 32.7%)

13.7% increase in Net Revenue (compared to companies with low levels of engagement experiencing a decline of 3.8%)
27.8% increase in Earnings-Per-Share (compared to companies with low levels of engagement experiencing a decline of 11.2%)

Do I have your attention yet?

Laughter is the Best Workplace Medicine

How important is a sense of humour in the workplace? Ninety-seven percent of workers polled say it is very or somewhat important for managers to have a funny bone.

According to the survey by Robert Hall International, 87 percent of 490 employees pooled said their supervisors have a good sense of humour. Ten percent said that they don’t find their boss funny, and 3 percent didn’t know or had no answer.

“Managers who can laugh at themselves or at difficult situations are often seen as more approachable and in touch with the challenges their teams face,” said max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Hall International. “Levity also can be used to build rapport among staff and ease stressful situations.”

But he also warned that too much clowning around can backfire. “To be taken seriously, supervisors must balance their desire to keep the mood light with the need to accomplish business objectives, inspire great performance and maintain professionalism.”

Your Workers May Not Be Engaged If...

Your Workers May Not Be Engaged If….

They miss important deadlines, not once, but chronically.
They frequently report that they are too ill to come to work, and usually on Fridays or Mondays.
Key managers expect high turnover.
The same errors appear on the ledger sheet month after month.
No one accepts responsibility for common mistakes
Team members are not communicating about basic job duties.
No one can find Employee after 3 pm
Unfounded rumours about the organization frequently float throughout the office.
Important equipment needs repair or replacement, and no one reports it, fixes it or replaces it.
Workers’ pay remains the same even as their performance soars.

It's All About the Team by Jim Sirbasku

Jim Sirbasku wrote in this excerpt below in his book "40 Strategies For Winning in Business". With the Summer Olympics having wrapped up this past week I wanted to share with you his thoughts about leadership and team...

Top basketball players competed in the 2004 Olympics and even in the 2006 World Games, but the teams did not appear. A key ingredient was missing: the chemistry that smoothly blends a group of stars into a unified whole. Uneven team play by superstars led U.S. planners to build a foundation for 2008 that would send an actual team to the Olympics. The formula included rounding up the superstars (NBA elite), requiring them to play together in early qualifying matches, and, finally, making sure both defenders and shooters were part of the mix.

This is a simple formula and a no-brainer for a coach or team leader. And yet the Olympian shortcomings of the Dream Teams are but one example of how heads of organizations repeat the same mistakes when seeking the success that top team performance leads to. Instead of throwing money at the problem, they throw talent at it. And they quickly discover that a bunch of talented people is just a bunch of talented people. Players and workers need a reason for being and a plan for working together to have the beginnings of a team.

Let's look at some of the key ingredients that go into making up a team:

• Balance, of the kind that Coach Mike Krzyzewski attempted to bring to this year's Dream Team redeemers
• Vision, or a common focus
• Chemistry that allows team players to make progress and reach their goals because they believe in the mission and respect their teammates

Let's pretend we are advising a team leader who needs to improve the productivity of a group of talented people. Each one performs well individually, but they do not function well together. Squabbles push them off track, and meetings reveal disagreement on even the fundamental issue of how to work together. The group must complete a project that requires detailed focus and reaching regular goals along the path to completion. After meeting for several months, team members have not produced anything useful.

Using the example of this year's Dream Team, we will help the team leader assemble and shape the group into something more than just a group of individuals.
First, we will:

Find the balance.
The first thing the leader will want to do is discover the strengths and weaknesses of people making up the group. Assessments that review employees' strengths and weaknesses will help. The group needs a mixture of those who immediately grasp the big picture and know how to create a plan, and those whose strengths lie in checking the fine details. Additionally, the group requires performers who can help move the project along at a regular clip so that no one misses a deadline, and those who are able to hear differences of opinion and build a verbal bridge between them. In the ideal situation, the team needs to be in charge of moving itself and taking responsibility for its actions without a boss hovering nearby. Someone, or several someones, need to encourage open and lively communication.

Obviously, it is a rare person who possesses all of these strengths in equal amounts, although many people will possess some of the necessary qualities. The more likely scenario is that the team will include people good at many things and people who excel at a few things. A team leader wants to ensure that he has the right strengths for the specific project and a good mix of all necessary qualities. After assembling our team, we will:

Share the vision.
A team must know why it exists. The team leader's job is to ensure that this knowledge is imparted, described and repeated as often as necessary to keep key players on track. If the team is just forming and/or includes new members, top management can show support by discussing and describing the organization's vision and the team's specific mission. This is a good time to let members ask questions or voice doubts, and to treat each concern or idea with respect. This is an important example to set. If members hear someone making light of their fears or playing down their ideas, they will be reluctant to speak up in the future.
Now that the team knows what it is supposed to do, we will:

Mix carefully for good chemistry.
As the team leader learned when he was checking the balance of strengths and skills, everyone is different. That does not mean the differences will not mix well. In fact, they can play off each other to create charged discussions, enthusiasm for projects, and spectacular results. It is essential that team members respect each other's differences and learn from one another. Becoming best friends at work or doing things together outside work is not necessary, but they do need to get along at work. The highest performing teams learn from each other, and the best team leaders find ways to coach players over the bumps that conflicts cause and use them to the team's advantage.

Even when a team is performing beautifully, it will still need coaching. Disagreements will erupt, or the waters may calm too much for progress to occur. The coach needs to monitor team balance constantly as members leave and others come in, and as the mission changes. But if the coach remembers to build the team on a firm foundation, assembling and regrouping productive Dream Teams is not an impossible challenge.