Archives for May 2018

Internal leadership development usually starts with the move from team member to supervisor. Once the flush of pride wears off, reality sets in and, with it, awareness of the need for new skills both mental and physical.

I went through this. Even when I felt like I had the answers, implementing them was another story. I often felt frustrated and ineffective and I found myself floundering. Luckily, another supervisor named Jim noticed.

Jim came to fill a role that was essential for me at that stage in my life. He became a mentor. He was well-liked and respected by both his peers and upper management and he took the time to help me take some of the guesswork out of leading.

Jim was known for heaping praise on his team members in a sincere, humble way. He was open and fair, and he set clear boundaries and expectations. He put relationships at the heart of everything he did. He knew strong ties between people could create greater success for the entire group.

One Christmas, I saw why his emphasis on relationships was so transformative. A crew was needed to work on Christmas day and no-one volunteered. Jim stepped in and said he’d like to supervise the crew that day. Moved by Jim’s commitment, others began to volunteer.

“You reap what you sow,” he told me later. “When you invest time into your people, you can never go wrong.”

Jim did three things exceedingly well that enabled him to be a successful supervisor. He knew that great leaders:
1.Build relationships.
2.Set expectations.
3.Set boundaries.

Here’s how you can develop each tenet:

How we build relationships

Building relationships involves listening, talking, asking questions, silence, support, showing respect, and being willing to let things go in order to repair ties. It’s a lot to think about and requires real, deliberate thinking and effort.

When supervisors, senior executives, and upper management commit to building healthier relationships in the workforce, the following performance-boosting realities can be cultivated:
A community of people with a shared vision
Partnerships built on trust
New ideas and possibilities
Structured accountability
A sense of belonging
Ability to better recognize when a person is out of sorts

With healthy relationships serving as the living foundation, an organization becomes stronger and more able to adapt––a must if it’s going to survive.

How to set expectations

Clear and achievable expectations help create an environment where success is possible and measurable.
When setting expectations, adhere to the following to ensure that they are honored:
Define and articulate expectations clearly so that workers do not have to guess what is being asked of them.
Never impose an expectation on someone and believe they should know what you wanted.
Ensure that the expectation is within each person’s ability to fulfill.
Allow for and be open to questions; this will help with buy-in. You may even have to adjust the expectation to one that is achievable.
If you set an unrealistic expectation, it WILL NOT be met, and you will be left frustrated.
Allow the worker to share their expectations of you. Yes, they have expectations too––the ones that are discussed with peers in the hallways, bathrooms or over a cold beer when you are not around. Know that when you fail to understand or meet the workers’ expectations, trust and respect will diminish.

How to set boundaries

For relationships to be healthy, they need boundaries. The key to setting boundaries is you and the self-awareness you’re able to foster.

If you can recognize what causes you to feel overwhelmed, emotionally exhausted, frustrated, angry, or just plain indifferent towards another person, you will be able to determine what kind of boundary needs to exist in order to establish a healthy working relationship. The key is to identify the issue without clinging to and cultivating those negative emotions.

In the workplace, one boundary to consider is the process of performance review feedback. How can you praise and/or critique work in a way that ensures the employee hears what you’re saying and that the relationship isn’t just not harmed, but strengthened?

Other boundaries that require special attention include:
Employees that are also friends outside of work
You and your spouse work with the same employer
Family members that are employees

When boundaries are set, expectations are clear, and relationships are strong, teams thrive. Learn this at the start and never forget it

Learn more about Cornerstone’s Executive Coaching or contact the author, Brian Betti

ATLANTA, GA. May 17, 2018 – A global survey into the challenge of future talent planning will probe the impact of the millennial and Gen Z cohort as a workforce majority in the near future. The survey is the 12th annual conducted among global business leaders by Cornerstone International Group, a world ranking executive search and leadership development organization headquartered here and in Shanghai.

“The values of the millennials are playing a major role in changes that are sweeping the workplace”, says Larry Shoemaker, president of both the organization and of the member search firm Cornerstone Atlanta.

“Full-time work is on the decline as incoming employees seek a better work-life balance. Leaders will have to learn to manage a workforce with more contractors, consultants and freelancers.”

The Cornerstone global business survey reflects attitudes and expectations in up to 34 countries where the retained search and leadership development organizations has member offices.

The survey questionnaire can be accessed here, or by going to the global website at www.cornerstone-group.com

The brief survey is open to all senior managers and executives and can be completed anonymously.

“Our global footprint as well as the nature of our business gives as a great opportunity to sample senior management opinion on major business issues,” says Shoemaker.

The report will be issued in mid-June.

For more information:
Tami Fitzpatrick
Executive Administrator
Cornerstone International Group
Tami-Fitzpatrick@cornerstone-group.com

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Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in a series by Ralf Knegtmans of Cornerstone Amsterdam, author of the recent book Agile Talent: Nine Essential Steps for Selecting Tomorrow’s Top Talent.

After years in the executive recruitment field I have come to believe that the proper theoretical background and sufficient practice can help anyone to improve their selection skills. All that is required is a true interest in recruitment paired with a willingness to examine several crucial stages of the selection process. Most of them are hardly rocket science, but some still require more attention than others.

One of the elements that requires extra focus is the use of the feedback form and, more particularly, the weighting of the selection criteria. These are the five or six skills, personality traits and motivational needs discussed earlier in my columns. These criteria are assembled as a joint effort of the selection team and lay the foundation for your focused interview. Most criteria are not equally significant or compelling when you are filling a position, which is why it makes sense to apply weighting.

The best time to do this is when you are deciding on the actual criteria. At that moment your reasons and deliberations are fresh in your mind and all the relevant people are in the session. If you want to do this job well, be sure to include immediate associates and team members in the discussion in addition to the relevant manager.

Ask the assembled group to list the key success factors on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being the least important requirement. Most of the time two or three of the (five or six) requirements will score a five. Preferably, you should be compelled to strongly differentiate between the requirements and avoid the temptation to award the bulk of them average significance. When people first start working with this method, they usually find it hard to vary the weighting of the criteria. Nor do they succeed in reaching a consensus straight away.

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change!”
Wayne Dyer, author and psychotherapist

One of the advantages of working with very transparent selection criteria (reflected in your weighted feedback form), is being able to offer candidates a better explanation as to why they do not qualify for the job. This more transparent selection process avoids any charge of subjectivity or nepotism.

A second advantage is that it gives you an opportunity to supply your customers with detailed management information on each candidate interviewed or presented. A third is that the selection committee and others involved in the decision are obliged to pay close attention to crucial or non-negotiable criteria. Our firm has encountered several instances of clients believing they had reached a consensus, when it turned out they did not agree on various elements and in fact had divergent job descriptions in mind.

When this happens, it is highly unlikely they will reach an identical judgement, and it is back to the drawing board for everyone.

Completely new job

Sometimes a description of the criteria results in a completely new job description. I remember the time we were approached to search for a Marketing Director for an international transportation company. We discovered when determining together the criteria for the focused interview that they were really looking for a Business Development Director.

Every new search calls for a thorough examination to discover what is at the heart of the position, to uncover which criteria are crucial or non-negotiable, and to provide reasons for those criteria. At first you will likely have some difficulty defining the five or six ultimate criteria for the position that you simply refuse to compromise on.

Devising an effective form for your feedback which includes weighted or categorized criteria, is something of a repetitive journey. Your level of understanding will grow as you become more astute at drawing up the criteria and subsequent weighting. This is a perfect match for agile ways of working: try a lot of stuff and keep what works. As you try a variety of things, you continue to adjust your method based on your experience and the latest information.

Method of ‘blind analysis’

One way to increase the agility and objectivity of your feedback form is to separate the people who devise the criteria and have those who are going to conduct the interview decide the weighting. Physicists call this method ‘blind analysis’. It results in less bias and prejudice, something you should always aim for while selecting the best people for your company or customers.