Workforce Planning Pitfalls - Watch Out!

It's so easy to feel needed by doing the work for your business unit leaders. HR or Talent Managers are more effective when they are contributing ideas and solutions to creating a deliberate and thoughtful workforce plan.

Check out this article from Talent Management Magazine. I think it hits the right mark when defining HR or Talent Managers role in the workforce planning process.

http://www.talentmgt.com/talent.php?pt=a&aid=779

Networking for Those Who Hate Networking

I thought this was a great article for all of my colleagues that can't stand networking (hint! hint!). Penelope Trunk, the Brazen Careerist, provides some great ideas.

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/careerist/27020

Using Appreciative Inquiry for Teambuilding

Purpose:

To get to know each other better.

To define “great team” characteristics.

Process:

Overview of Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry is a practical philosophy of choosing to seek out that which is positive and life-enriching, both in our own lives and the lives of others. It is a process for engaging people in building a team that they want to participate in or on.

Appreciative Inquiry is an idea that there is a connection between the images we hold of what is possible and the questions we ask about our past and present. AI is about focusing on the positive and moving forward from there – asking questions in a positive way and focusing on what is right, rather than always what is wrong.

The rationale behind AI is two-fold: (1) when you focus on the positive, it becomes a springboard or energizer for the future and (2) it also generate exceptionally useful information about what to enhance and build on as we move into the future as a team.

The phases of AI are (1) definition – building our team (2) discovery –what constitutes your memories of what a good team looks and acts like (3) dream – what are our collective themes about good teams and what would a “best team” look like (4) design – what will our best team look and act like (5) destiny – what are the action steps to make this a reality?

Sharing of “best team” experience (Discovery)

A. Have each of the participants think about the following questions:

- What is your best team memory?
- What made it a peak experience?
- Who were the significant players?
- What was happening on the team at that time?
- What was happening in your life at that time?
- Without being humble – what did you add to the team?
- What was the most important thing about the team that you can remember?

B. Have each person share – and flip chart all responses. Encourage members to set aside their preconceived notions about teams and get fully grounded in their memory of the actual experience, and fully explore what about themselves, the situation, the task, and others made this a “peak” experience.

Debrief the process

Ask everyone what the process of sharing was like.

Exploration of themes (Dream)

A. Have the group look at all of the flipcharts and begin to develop a list of the attributes of a highly effective group.

B. List these attributes on a separate flipchart.

C. Ask if there is anything else they have seen in others today that helped the group become more effective and add these to the flipchart.

Clarifying best team characteristics (Design)

A. After the list of attributes is made – clarify, as a team, what are to be the attributes of this team going forward

B. Be sure to have everyone’s agreement and buy-in.

Actions steps for making this happen (Destiny)

A. Break the group into smaller groups and allow each mini-group to come up with action steps for making this new group definition live on.

B. Bring the group together and share all of the action steps.

C. Agree as a large group what the action steps are for creating and maintain a highly effective team.

Debrief process

A. Ask: which part of today’s meeting most intrigues or engaged you?

B. What part of today’s meeting should we try to build on as we meet with others in the future?

C. What wishes do you have for the next time we meet?


Payoff:

Everyone feels more comfortable participating in the team and therefore more quality work is produced.

Action steps toward working together as a new team are defined and everyone is clear about their participation in the group.

Tapping Into the Best of Yourself

Devote 10 minutes a day to reflecting on how you approached situations in the last 24 hours and how you intend to approach situations in the next 24 hours.

The 21st century will hand each of us opportunities to tap our true potential.

If we simply run on automatic pilot, we will miss them.

Ten minutes of reflection a day can allow us to embrace them with enthusiasm and truly feel the joy of leadership.

Where are you getting your talent from?

Consider the facts:

- 40 percent of employers worldwide are having difficulty filling positions due to the lack of suitable talent available in their markets.

- According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, the shortage of skilled workers will exceed 10 million by 2010.

- 45 percent of workers say they want to change jobs every three to five years.

- It is estimated that there will be 913, 000 job openings between 2003 and 2015. Currently, there are nearly 680, 000 students in BC schools (K-12). If each of those students accepted jobs within BC, between now and 2015, some before they even graduate, only 74% of the upcoming job openings could be filled. (www.ecdev.gov.bc.ca)

“Most managers are made, not born. There has to be systematic work on the supply, the development, and the skills of tomorrow’s assignment. It cannot be left to chance.”
- Peter Drucker

Questions to ask yourself?

- What is your organization doing to develop its high potential employees?
- What are your competitors offering their employees?
- Where’s your team’s succession planning chart? On the top shelf? Well, dust it off!
- How often should you review your team’s succession plan?

“Top-performing companies allocate 20% of executive incentives to leadership development and assess them on the ability to retain this talent.”
- From Hewitt Associates Inc. 2005. “How the Top 20 Companies Grow Great Leaders", Research Highlights, Hewitt Associates, Toronto, Ontario.

Here are a few tips on how to set-up your succession plan:

1. Align your succession plan with your organization’s business goals. Look at the next 1-3 and 3-5 years and determine whether you have the right structure and individuals to support your business goals.

2. Identify the skills and competencies needed. Understand the difference between Job-Based Approach and Competency-Based Approach:

Job-Based Approach:
- It’s our first impulse.
- Quantitative and qualitative data to support decision.
- Suggests that individuals, who have successfully demonstrated their duties and responsibilities, will be equally successful in leading team, facilitating change, thinking creatively, etc.

Competency-Based Approach:
- Core competencies are extreme capabilities that serve as a source of competitive advantage for a organization over its rivals.
- Core competencies emerge over time through an organizational process of accumulating and learning how to deploy different resources and capabilities.
- Despite effective planning, the future remains uncertain. Skills need to change rapidly. Succession management should focus on the development of competencies.
- Examples include: providing constructive feedback, taking calculated risks, strategic alliances with key stakeholders, etc.

3. Identify high potential employees.

- What is crucial for your business to operate in the next 1-3? 3-5 years?
- Do you need leaders to relocate to other countries in which you will operate?
- Do you need leaders with multi-location supervisory skills?
- Do your leaders need to have strong business acumen and financial planning skills?

Articulate the characteristics, requirements and competencies that will make your organization successful in the future.

4. Provide development opportunities and experiences.

Want to rapidly advance your up-and-coming leaders? Try:
- Assign a mentor with the experiences you want your high potential to learn from.
- Enlist a coach to trouble-shoot with them on their approach with employees, peers and their business partners.
- Provide full-circle feedback so they know where they stand with their key stakeholders.
- Create development experiences, like assigning a “start-up” or “fix-it” project.
- Job rotations take people out of their comfort zone and provide perspectives in other areas of the business.

5. Monitor succession plan monthly. Things can change quickly with your employees (E.g. illness, moving away, going back to school, maternity leave, etc.).

6. Involve others in your plan. Enlist the support of your peers and supervisor in retaining your high potentials and observing their growth.

In conclusion, successful succession management is not a static event. In order to be effective and maximize your return on investment, succession management requires constant attention and readjustment to the changing needs of your business and individual circumstances.

Downsizing with Dignity

Downsizing or doing layoffs is a toxic solution. Used sparingly and with planning downsizing can be an organizational lifesaver, but when layoffs are used repeatedly without a thoughtful strategy, downsizing can destroy an organization's effectiveness. How you treat people really matters - to the people who leave and the people who remain.

One outcome of downsizing must be to preserve the organization's intellectual capital.

How downsized employees are treated directly affects the morale and retention of valued, high-performing employees who are not downsized.

Downsizing should never be used as a communication to financial centers or investors of the new management's tough-minded, no-nonsense style of management -- the cost of downsizing far outweighs any benefits thus gained.

Lastly, if downsizing seems like the practical solution right now, remember that financial cycles can change. A year from now, your company may be in a position to hire new talent. The manner in which you dismiss your employees during a downsizing phase may have a positive or negative impact on your next recruiting efforts. Colleagues and friends talk and they will share whether their experience during your downsizing process was smooth and appreciative, or chaotic and neglectful.

Check out this article by Alan Downs for About.com

http://humanresources.about.com/od/layoffsdownsizing/a/downsizing.htm

The Call for Coaching

Facts: Today’s Workplace

- Organizational change leads to loss of up to 75% productive work time.
- Job stress costs estimated at $3.5 billion ($300 billion in the U.S.).
- One of the top sources of job stress is poor interpersonal relationships.
- 85% of all organizational difficulties stem from interpersonal conflict.
- 60% of employees operating at 45% capacity.

Sources: Harvard Business Review, Globe and Mail, Peter Frost (2003)


Now, more than ever, leaders and employees need coaching to resolve issues in the workplace and create effective relationships.

As a manager, you wear many hats. You are expected to be a role model, mentor, as well as a coach. However, you cannot run the “shop” all by yourself. You need the support of a strong and effective team. Your role is to strengthen your team by coaching them through issues and situations so they are able to perform at their peak. By catching performance problems early, you will avoid them escalating into bigger issues.

So what is coaching?

Dennis Kinlaw (1989) describes “successful coaching is a one-on-one conversation between manager and employee that follows a predictable process and leads to superior performance, commitment to sustained improvement and positive relationships.”

However, a simpler approach to take is from the dictionary.

Coach – Origin – French – “A vehicle to transport people from one place to another.”


What’s the coaching process?

Build Rapport:
· Don’t wing it – be clear about the issues
· Create the right space
· Set context
· Ask for their perspective
· Do what you say and say what you mean

Observe and Analyze:
· Observe the impact the employee is having on others
· Avoid forming premature judgements
· Look for ways to test and confirm your observations
· Look for patterns in an employee’s behaviour

Question and Listen:
· Don’t be afraid to ask
· Ask curious questions
· Avoid pitfalls of listening
· Avoid interrupting
· Encourage the exploration of options

Provide Feedback:
· Ask permission
· Make it objective and descriptive
· Don’t just focus on the negatives
· Look at the bigger picture
· Deliver feedback in a timely manner
· Treat others how they want to be treated
· Use lightness

Facilitating Learning
· Model the behaviour you expect
· Agree on the action plan
· Schedule a follow-up meeting
· Make it clear you are there to provide support
· Evaluate progress


Hint: Asking Powerful Questions

When I say “powerful” I am not implying that you as the coach will have “power” over your employee or client. Powerful questions inspire thought, exploration and problem solving. They help to stimulate the coaching dialogue to get to the root of the issue.

Here’s some examples of powerful questions to ask in your next coaching conversation:

· What is the core issue?
· What perspective are you taking on this?
· What assumptions are you making?
· What do you want?
· What does success look like?
· If you had a magic wand, what would you have happen?
· What do you need to say “No” to?
· What does your gut say?
· What’s getting in your way?
· What’s stopping you from doing X?
· What’s the boldest thing you could do?
· What else?
· What is the worst thing that could happen?
· What are your next steps?
· What could you do by Friday?
· On a scale of 1-10, where 10 is totally committed, how committed are you to moving forward with this action?
· What support do you need to get this handled?
· What’s the learning for you?


Coaching employees through an issue can be one of the most challenging responsibilities that you encounter on the job, but it can also be rewarding. By taking some of these suggestions and applying them, you will increase your effectiveness and develop a stronger team.

Adapted from "Coaching for Leadership Excellence" Workshop, Sauder School of Business, Executive Education 2008.

Take Another Peak

What goes up... must come down.

We’ve all heard this before. In fact, you probably could have finished the sentence on your own. A basic lesson in gravity.

Luckily, this isn’t true for personal performance. You work hard to reach a professional peak, struggle along the way, perhaps even have moments when you feel like giving up, but don’t. Then, at some point, you realize you’ve achieved something you didn’t think you could. You’ve challenged yourself and met the challenge. How rewarding and exhilarating this can be. Now what? A fall? No way.

Reaching a peak gives you a new vantage point, showing you new places you can go, new challenges you can take on, new peaks you can strive for. Your potential and what you can achieve look different. Your confidence and self-esteem are boosted by your success. New peaks look possible. Keep climbing.

So, how do you reach a peak? It doesn’t happen by accident. First, set a goal that you’re truly motivated to achieve. Motivation will carry you through the bumps you’re likely to encounter. Then, find a coach or mentor, someone to guide you along the way. Seek our people who can support you. It’s easier and more enjoyable to climb with others. With each step, hone your skills. Take a class if you need it, but keep in mind that experience is often the best teacher. And finally, work hard.

Working hard is exhausting. It’s also what makes success taste so good.


About the Author
Elizabeth Davies is an experienced leader and strategist in Human Resources, with expertise in talent development. After graduating from Indiana University and Stanford Law School, she practiced law before shifting her career to training and development. Over the past 18 years, she has held leadership roles at Gap and Apple. She has also formed her own consultancy, The Retail Training Institute, serving retail and non-retail clients such as Levi Strauss, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, J. Crew, Williams
Sonoma, Tommy Hilfiger, Oracle, Visa, Philip Morris, and Miller Brewing.

Elizabeth is passionate about creating and executing global initiatives that support company goals and reinforce the brand. Her specialties include leadership & management development, design and execution of OD initiatives, and conference development and execution. You can reach her at bldavies@mac.com.

© 2008 Elizabeth Davies
Permission to reprint is granted on the following conditions: (1) the essay is used in its entirety, (2) Elizabeth Davies is named as the author and credited for the work, (3) notification of your intent to use the essay is sent to Elizabeth Davies at bldavies@mac.com prior to your use of work.

Four Steps for Building Leaders at Every Level

Winning organizations and people who build leaders at every level come in all shapes, sizes and nationalities, and can be found in any industry. The goods and services they produce and the strategies and tactics they employ are widely divergent. But they all share a set of fundamental similarities.

First, leaders with a proven track record of success take direct responsibility for the development of other leaders.

Second, leaders who develop other leaders have teachable points of view in the specific areas of ideas, values, and something called E3 – emotional energy and edge. Winning leaders and teachers have ideas that they can articulate and teach to others about both how to make the organizational successful in the marketplace and how to develop other leaders.

Third, leaders embody their teachable point of view in living stories. They tell stories about their past that explain their learning experiences and their beliefs. And they create stories about the future of their organizations that engage others both emotionally and intellectually to attain the winning future that they describe.

Finally, because winning leaders invest considerable amount of time in developing other leaders, they have well-defined methodologies and thoroughly developed coaching and teaching techniques. Among these is a willingness to admit mistakes and show vulnerability in order to serve as effective role models for others.

“Every person in a key position has to see himself or herself as a minim-CEO. They have to conceptualize what has to be done in the same way the CEO has. Then it cascades.”
- Michael Walsh, former CEO, Tenneco

Take a moment to assess how ready you are to develop other leaders based on the following criteria in this questionnaire.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MSbPZbHfxqv8N_2fVPCgraPQ_3d_3d

Congratulations!
If you scored 5 (or Strongly Agree) on all of these, you are rating yourself an outstanding leader/teacher. If you scores lower than 5, congratulate yourself as well. The first step in teaching others is an honest self-assessment of how prepared you are to do so.

Building Strength in Your Workplace

“True belonging is born of relationships not only to one another but to a place of shared responsibilities and benefits. We love not so much what we have acquired as what we have made and whom we have made it with.”
Robert Finch, “Scratching”, The Primal Place, 1983.

Organizations exist to accomplish tasks that are too complex, expensive or difficult for one person to accomplish alone. We come together as teams to pool energy, experience and expertise and raise support.

Ask yourself, and your employees, whether you are building strength and increasing engagement in your workplace.

To get started, take a few minutes to read “Marcus Buckingham Thinks Your Boss Has an Attitude Problem” by Polly LaBarre, Fast Company Magazine.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/49/buckingham.html

How it works

Step 1. Read the story from the link above.

Step 2. Generate a brief survey (try using www.surveymonkey.com) using the following questions that Marcus Buckingham and the Gallup Organization developed.

Possible questions to ask your employees:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment that I need in order to do my work effectively?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the past seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission or purpose of my company make me feel that my job is important?
9. Are my coworkers committed to doing quality work?
10. In the past six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
11. This year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Step 3. Distribute the questions to all employees that report to you. The objective is to get compelling answers to the questions about the day-to-day realities of their jobs.

Step 4. Talk to your employees and explain to them that you are handing out this questionnaire in order to help determine and assess the health of your organization. Explain to them what you intend to do with the information you gather.

Step 5. Collect and analyze the data. These factors will help you determine whether people are engaged, not engaged, or actively disengaged at work. From here you can better leverage making all of your employees engaged.

Important note: If you ask for the feedback, and don’t take action, don’t be surprised if your engagement levels decline rapidly as a result.

What it can do

Measure the core elements needed to attract, focus and keep the most talented employees.

Identify which workers are engaged, not engaged, actively not engaged in their work.

Help create more alignment between the dreams of employees and the drive of the business to win.

Food for Thought: Imagining Your Dream Team

I continue to revert back to Jim Collin's book, Good to Great, when helping leaders discover the effectiveness of their team.

In Chapter 3, Collins looks at "First Who, Then What".

Imagine your "dream team" - the perfect team for the work you are managing right now and into the future. List the top 10 characteristics you must have on your team (E.g. creative, hard working, etc.)

Create a chart. On vertical axis, fill in the curent team member's names (including yourself). On the horizontal axis, transfer the top 10 characteristics you previously identified.

For each team member, review the characteristcs listed and indicate with a check mark whether they exhibit that particular characteristic.

Questions to Reflect:

- What do you notice? What are your areas of strength and areas of vulnerability? How do you fit in? Have you hired people like you or people who would compliment you?

- As you create the strategy and structure for your organization, what steps can you take to make sure you have the right people on the bus before you set the next direction?

- What are your biggest opportunities right now? Are they staffed with your strongest people?

Don't have time to read the entire book, well check out these two links for more information:

http://www.jimcollins.com/

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/51/goodtogreat.html

Tool: Peer Coaching Circles

“Truly authentic leaders are open both to their gifts and to their underdeveloped qualities. People who understand who they are tend to have a more powerful voice – and to make a more profound contribution to an enterprise…”
- Kevin Cashman, Founder and President, Leadersource

Can you answer these questions?

• What are my particular strengths? What are my development areas?

• What does my organization need from its leaders? Based on my current knowledge, skills, and abilities, how am I contributing to my organization? What skills am I missing that could be critical to my organization’s mission and my success?

• How can I take charge of my own development? What would I put on my development plan that would inspire me and help the organization?

If you are reading this, you probably understand the importance of continuing to expand your own knowledge base and capacities. Many leaders overlook their responsibility in self-development.

Welcome to a tool that can assist you with uncovering your strengths and development opportunities as a leader – Peer Coaching Circles.

What is it?

A safe, informal, and collaborative feedback tool for leaders to provide ongoing support, coaching, and feedback to one another.

A peer coaching circle consists of 4 participants and meets at least once a month for 2 hours to dialogue on individual and organizational development opportunities, challenges, needs, frustrations, and ideas. Each person has 30 minutes to present a leadership and/or management challenge they are facing, share how they are responding, and receive coaching from their peers.

Peer coaches are to be in service of helping each other gain greater self-awareness and continue to grow as leaders. Knowing our weaknesses is a critical first step in being able to do something about them. Lack of awareness, whether through neglect or arrogance is a major contributor to career derailment.

What can it do?

Enhance the development of the following:

• Cross-functional relationships and dialogue

• Individual skills, knowledge, and abilities

• Strategies and initiatives that address our business opportunities and challenges

How it works?

Step 1. Identify 3 peers to form a peer coaching circle.

Step 2. Invite the peers to join a peer coaching circle and determine the first meeting date.

Step 3. Conduct the first meeting, which should establish ground rules, participant expectations, and meeting structure (frequency, length, structure for coaching circle meetings).

Step 4. Conduct the monthly peer coaching circle meetings.

Great HR/Management Resource Site

go2hr offers a resourceful site for small to mid-size business owners and HR folks in the BC Tourism Industry. Although the site focuses on the tourism industry, the management principles can flow into any industry/organization. Topics include: Recruitment, Retention, Training and Development, Legal, etc.

(It is also a great site for anyone interested wanting to enter the tourism industry.)

http://www.go2hr.ca/ForbrEmployers/tabid/79/Default.aspx