Every week I like to feature a resource that will help you to Maximize Possibility in your organization and your life at work. Last week I shared the Workplace Motivators Assessment (TM), this week I would like to share powerful online resource that I am confident you will find of value.
The Resource: Jack and Suzy Welch's office website - "The Welch Way".
What it is: A powerful resource that is full of deep, easy-to-use advice.
Why You should Check it Out: Jack Welch is a business genius. I am a huge fan of Jack Welch. His pragmatic, results-oriented leadership/management style is one I admire and strongly recommend my Clients adopt. If you believe in straight-talk and candor - check out Jack Welch's books - particularly Winning.
Also... Check out Jack and Suzy's Welch Way column in BusinessWeek. A podcast is available as well.
There were a lot of great posts hitting the Blogosphere this past week on the topics of leadership development, talent management, and human resource management. I would like to point you to five blog posts that I consider to be the best of the best for the week of July 20th through July 26th.
Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership: A No Bulls*#% Manager's Guide to Internet Use at Work- Dan hits a homerun with another no-bull, common sense guide to leadership. This time he has his cross-hairs on employee internet use at work. Check it out for some straight shooting advice on a touchy issue.
Anonymous Blogger, Know HR Blog: Great HR is Invisible - The gang over at the Know HR blog has opened their doors to an anonymous guest blogger who is a "senior HR executive in a company that all of you know" who has posted a great 3 part series on "What is Right in HR". This is the last post in the series, so be sure to check out the links to the first two posts as well!
Sanjeev Himachali, The Recruiters Lounge: Building Trust at Workplace- Trust is the foundation to any high performance team. Sanjeev takes a look at the importance of trust in our workplace relationships and what one can do to build trust with those you work with to realize improved results and greater success in our careers.
Rebecca Mazin, HR Answers Blog: How Aggressive is that Employee?- The word "aggressive" has a lot of baggage attached to it and can be interpreted in many different ways. In one situation an "aggressive" employee can be a real asset to your organization, while in another situation an "aggressive" employee can become a real liability.
Rebecca takes a look at the use of this loaded word when it comes to giving out employment references and stresses the importance of providing relevant details that will provide added clarity to the person inquiring about a potential job candidate.
Lisa Haneberg, Management Craft: 10 Ways to Handle Complaints- If you manage employees or customer relations, chances are that dealing with complaints is an every day reality. Lisa shares a great poem about what a complaint really is and goes on to provide 10 suggestions for managers fielding complaints from employees and customers alike.
40 years ago this past week man accomplished what many considered to be impossible - we landed on the moon, planted the flag of our great country into its surface, and safely returned the crew of three astronauts to earth. As I watched the media coverage of this historic anniversary, I couldn't help but think about the important role that Mindset Power played in this incredible accomplishment.
Imagine it is 1955 - two years before the space age and the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik. If a stranger were to ask if it were possible for a man to walk on the moon in the next 15 years, how would you respond? Would you laugh at this stranger and think them to be mad, or would you pause, think, and reply "it's possible - difficult, but possible"? I will admit that it is hard to give an unbiased answer to the hypothetical question I just posed, but I find it an interesting question to consider nonetheless.
As I stare out at the moon this evening I still find it amazing that 12 humans have actually stepped foot on our closest companion in our solar system. As incredible as this is, I feel confident in saying that if one were to ask these 12 individuals the same question I posed above in 1955 their replies would be a resounding and unwavering "yes". I'll bet the crew of the six Apollo missions would have answered the same way.
What if the crew didn't believe the mission were possible? Would the outcome of these mission have been the same?
Without a "can-do" attitude and the ability to "tune-out" the skeptics I don't think it would have been possible. Our mindset plays a critical role in our ability to accomplish even the most far fetched goals. A negative mindset can kill an otherwise ambitious but achievable goal, while a positive and upbeat mindset can provide that little "extra" needed to accomplish the seemingly impossible.
What goals and challenges are you facing in your career right now? What is your mindset towards these goals and challenges? Are you focused on the possibilities or the limitations?
Your mindset is a powerful force - choose it wisely!
If you're feeling stuck or hopeless against the challenges you are facing, think about the brave crew of that first mission to the moon and remember that with the right mindset one can turn the impossible into reality.
Now go Maximize Possibility!
Every week I like to feature a resource that will help you to Maximize Possibility in your organization and your life at work. Last week I shared the DISC behavioral profile, this week I would like to share another powerful assessment that measures an individual's values.
The Resource: Workplace Motivators Assessment (TM)
What it is: The Workplace Motivators profile is a powerful values assessment that identifies what an individual is motivated by in the workplace. Our values are often hidden, but play a critical role in determining our observable behavior at work.
The six values measured in this assessment are:
Individualistic - A desire for control and power over one's destiny
Utilitarian - A drive for money and a return on investment of their time and efforts
Social - A strong interest in helping others
Theoretical - The need for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom
Traditional - A calling to follow a specific system of living
Aesthetic - A drive for form, harmony, and beauty
Why You should Check it Out: The Workplace Motivators Assessment is a very versatile tool that has applications in hiring, engagement, motivation, development, coaching, and many other fields of talent management.
Consider the employee selection process... Different positions require different behavior-driving values for optimal employee performance. If a manager or leader can identify the key values needed to succeed in a position and then selectively hire qualified job candidates who posses these values, the challenging task of performance management is greatly simplified for both the manager and the employee.
The workplace Motivators assessment is also a powerful engagement, reward, and motivation tool. Using the information about an individual's values, a manager can offer incentives that more effectively drive employee behavior. For example, the employee with a high utilitarian value will be motivated by a spiff or commission for making a sale, whereas the behavior of an employee with a high social value will be more easily encouraged by the opportunity to spearhead a company charity drive.
When combined with a behavioral assessment, the Workplace Motivators profile begins to provide a manager with a more complete understanding of who their employees are and why they act the way they do.
If you have any questions about this assessment or would like a demonstration of its valuable workplace applications, feel free to give me a shout via the button below.
Additional Information:
View Sample Assessment
Your Attitude is Showing Workshops
Using Values to Motivate Your Employees
There were a lot of great posts hitting the Blogosphere this past week on the topics of leadership development, talent management, and human resource management. I would like to point you to five blog posts that I consider to be the best of the best for the week of July 13th through July 19th.
Ryan, Business Pundit: The 12 Qualities of True Business Professionals - The word "professional" can become a real cliche (and even joke) the way it is tossed around these days. Ryan gives us a nice definition of what it means to be a professional by sharing 12 qualities true business professionals share.
Steve Roesler, All Things Workplace: Employees: People or Roles? - Steve takes a look at the effect job titles and stratified organizational charts can have on the way employees interact and work with each other and wants us to start thinking about our employees as real people and not just names that perform an organizational function. I'm not big on job titles so I loved this post and think you will too!
Tim Tolan, Fistful of Talent: Candidates Need to Hear From You... Even if It's Painful - With the labor market heavily favoring employers, it can become tough to keep up with job candidate correspondence with so many qualified applicants to choose from and keep informed through the process. Tim from the FOT crew has a great post reminding us that it is critical for your employment brand to keep in touch with candidates throughout the hiring process... even if it is painful!
Seth Godin's Blog: The Law of the Little Shovel - Seth has a great lesson for salespeople (and all of us for that matter) based on the law of the little shovel and how/where we focus our efforts in business.
Professor Ford's Blog: Top Management Challenges: Are We Being Victims? - Lisa Haneberg turned me on to this post by Professor Ford and it is a good one. Professor Ford takes a look at the top reported management challenges and then puts a spin of personal accountability on them by asking if we are letting ourselves become victims to challenges we are more than capable of overcoming.
Every week I like to feature a resource that will help you to Maximize Possibility in your organization and your life at work. This week I would like to share a powerful talent management and hiring tool that I have used repeatedly to improve employee performance.
The Resource: DISC Behavioral Personality Assessment
What it is: DISC is a behavioral-based psychological profile that identifies an individual's predominant behavioral style. The DISC assessment reveals one's natural and adaptive behavioral tendencies based on an inventory of mathematically validated self-rated questions.
After the assessment has been completed a report is generated that categorizes the respondent's behavioral style based on four dimensions:
Dominance (D): How one responds to problems and challenges.
Influence (I): How one influences others to their point of view.
Steadiness (S): How one responds to the pace of the environment around them.
Compliance (C): How one responds to rules and procedures set by others.
Why You Should Check it Out: I like to think of the DISC assessment as a "user's manual" to the talent within your organization. The insights gleaned from a DISC report will provide you with valuable information about how well fit an employee is for a job and how they prefer to be managed and coached to reach their full potential.
The DISC report will indicate where an individual "scores" on each of the four dimensions of behavior measured in the assessment and provide valuable workplace implications for these scores. Wikipedia has a nice recap of each of the four DISC dimensions:
Dominance (D): People who score high in the intensity of the "D" styles factor are very active in dealing with problems and challenges, while low "D" scores are people who want to do more research before committing to a decision. High "D" people are described as demanding, forceful, egocentric, strong willed, driving, determined, ambitious, aggressive, and pioneering. Low D scores describe those who are conservative, low keyed, cooperative, calculating, undemanding, cautious, mild, agreeable, modest and peaceful.
Influence (I): People with high "I" scores influence others through talking and activity and tend to be emotional. They are described as convincing, magnetic, political, enthusiastic, persuasive, warm, demonstrative, trusting, and optimistic. Those with low "I" scores influence more by data and facts, and not with feelings. They are described as reflective, factual, calculating, skeptical, logical, suspicious, matter of fact, pessimistic, and critical.
Steadiness (S): People with high "S" styles scores want a steady pace, security, and do not like sudden change. High "S" individuals are calm, relaxed, patient, possessive, predictable, deliberate, stable, consistent, and tend to be unemotional and poker faced. Low "S" intensity scores are those who like change and variety. People with low "S" scores are described as restless, demonstrative, impatient, eager, or even impulsive.
Compliance (C): People with high "C" styles adhere to rules, regulations, and structure. They like to do quality work and do it right the first time. High "C" people are careful, cautious, exacting, neat, systematic, diplomatic, accurate, and tactful. Those with low "C" scores challenge the rules and want independence and are described as self-willed, stubborn, opinionated, unsystematic, arbitrary, and careless with details.
Imagine know this information about an employee candidate before you make a hiring decision, or knowing how to best approach an employee when coaching their performance. Think about what this could do to improve your managerial effectiveness.
When used properly the DISC assessment can be a powerful talent management tool with applications in hiring, training and development, communication, conflict resolution and coaching (just to name a few). I have seen great success when using this assessment to improve performance with Client organizations and also use it internally with my own company. The results can be amazing.
There are many DISC assessments available, but I have found Target Training International's DISC assessment to be the premier assessment available on the market. If you would like more information on this powerful talent management tool, or would like a complimentary demonstration, feel free to contact me via the button below - I am happy to help!
More information on DISC:
Sample Profile
Validity Study
Applications in the Workplace
Chris Young helps organizations Maximize Possibility through talent management, cultural transformation, and strategic intervention. Bring Chris in today!
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With all the great posts hitting the Blogosphere this past week on the topics of leadership development, talent management, and human resource management, I would like to point you to five blog posts that I consider to be the best of the best for the week of July 6th through July 12th.
Joe and Wanda on Management: High Performance Virtual Teams - Fostering a high performance team can be a real challenge. Throw in remote workers, telecommuters, and satellite locations and this task can become a lot for a manager to wrap his or her arms around.
The folks at Joe and Wanda on Management have a nice podcast interview with Anil Saxena where they discuss the "Virtual Six" for creating high performance virtual teams.
Michelle Malay Carter, Mission Minded Management: If you Want Accountability, You Must Grant Authority - Accountability can become a laughable cliche if it isn't approached properly. Michelle Carter takes a look at this important element of a high performing organizations through the lens of a Requisite Organization framework and reminds us that if we want to foster accountability (and engagement) that we must grant the proper authority to our managers to accomplish the goals they are accountable for.
Tom Foster, Management Skills Blog: Whose Role is it? - Tom has yet another great series of insightful posts on his blog this week. This time he shares a story of how to balance seemingly opposing goals between a manager who creates the system and the supervisor who "drives" the system by combining goals and ideas.
Alex Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer: Happiness at Work at Zappos- Zappos has a stellar reputation as a great organization to work for. Chief Happiness Officer Alex shares an ABC video exploring the culture of the organization and shares his assessment of why Zappos is such a great place to work.
Kris Dunn, HR Capitalist: My SHRM09 Wrap-Up - Kris Dunn spent a few days at the Society for Human Resource Management annual convention in New Orleans last week and shares his parting thoughts on the conference and ponders how SHRM can reach out to the many niche segments within its 250,000 strong membership base.
The fine folks over at the Effortless HR Blog are hosting the latest Carnival of Human Resources.p Head over and check it out for yourself for a great collection of HR, talent management, leadership and management posts!
Every Friday I like to feature an online resource that will help you and your organization Maximize Possibility. This week I would like to feature one of my favorite HR resource and blogging sites: HRM Today.
The Resource: HRM Today - The Social Network for Today's HR Professional
What it Covers: HRM Today is a dedicated social network for HR professionals that features a number of great resources including blogs, discussion forums, and a nice social networking feature that functions like a hybrid of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Blogs on HRM Today are integrated via RSS feeds from some of the best bloggers in the HR community on a wide range of topics including communication, leadership, company culture, talent management, training, and much, much more. Visitors can also keep up to date with their favorite bloggers on HRM Today as posts are categorized by author as well.
The discussion forum offers a great place for HR pros to pose questions to others in the industry and weigh in on the latest hot topics in HR.
By joining HRM Today's social network you will have an excellent opportunity to connect and network with other Human Resources Professional.
Why You Should Check it Out: What I love about HRM Today is that it not only aggregates blogs from some of the best bloggers in the industry, but also offers the opportunity to connect with these great business minds as well as numerous other HR professionals. If you are passionate about human resources I am confident that you will find HRM Today to be one of the foremost resources for that latest HR news and information, as well as a great place to connect with other like-minded HR professionals.
What are you waiting for? Head on over to HRM Today and check it out for yourself!
Features you will enjoy at HRM Today:
Friend of the blog, Dan McCarthy, is hosting the latest Carnival of Leadership Development at his blog: Great Leadership.
While you're there, poke around Dan's blog... lots of great stuff to be found!
Even with the Independence Day holiday cutting the week short for many, there were great posts hitting the Blogosphere this past week on the topics of leadership development, talent management, and human resource management. For your reading enjoyment I would like to point you to five blog posts that I consider to be the best of the best for the week of June 29th to July 5th.
Lisa Haneberg, Management Craft: How to be a Change Agent - Want to be an agent of change in your organization? Lisa suggests you consider your role to be that of a "change baker" and points to a nice post by Eric Brown that shares 15 key competencies of change agents.
Jay Shepard, Gruntled Employees: Sugarcoated Terminations - Jay wants you to stop sugarcoating the tough work of terminating an employee and start sharing all the facts and telling the whole truth about the situation.
Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM Blog: Developing a Recruitment Strategy - Need to develop an organizational recruitment strategy? Jon has released a nice post where he synthesizes a recent CIPD report that outlines a seven step process for developing an effective recruitment strategy.
Frank Roche, Know HR: Communication Lesson For Managers: Be Direct - I love Frank's blog because he does such a great job of practicing the K.I.S.S. principle. Frank's advice for effective managerial communication in this post is true to form. Check it out!
Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership: Summer Re-Reading Mini-List - If you're looking for a great summer read (or re-read) check out Wally's post where he shares his top six books for summer reading.
SHRM Convention Coverage: A number of HR bloggers are covering the Society For Human Resource Management convention in New Orleans. Check out Fistful of Talent, Punk Rock HR, Your HR Guy, and Cheezhead for their take on the conference.
Every week I like to feature a resource that will help you to Maximize Possibility in your organization and your life at work. This week I would like to share with you a blog that I have enjoyed following since I dove into the HR and Talent Management blogging world.
The Resource: Tom Foster's Management Skills Blog
What it Covers: Tom's blog draws heavily from his consulting practice and life experiences to share insightful and demonstrative stories for managers to learn from to improve their skills. Tom covers a wide range of management topics in his blog including, but not limited to: team building, time management, setting and achieving organizational goals, performance management, employee coaching, and leadership development.
Why You Should Check it Out: My favorite thing about Tom's blog is the unique and brilliant way that he structures his posts. Tom shares his management insights through a series of short anecdotal post that provide a glimpse into the real life inner-workings of organizations from a variety of industries.
Each collection of posts is typically centered around a particular problem or opportunity that one of Tom's clients is facing at the moment. As the story progresses Tom works with his clients to help them see the situation in a different light and ultimately leads them to the all-important "Eureka!" moment.
As you follow Tom's conversational posts, you will begin to notice that the way you look at the tasks and challenges you encounter in your position slowly changes as you draw on the insights revealed from Tom's stories. It's hard to ask for much more from a management blog.
I also love that Tom's post are short and very easy to read. Tom also has a great way of leaving you "hanging" and wanting to read the rest of his story. Thankfully he never leaves us hanging too long as he posts to his blog nearly every day - something that I, as a fellow talent management blogger, can really admire and respect.
If you haven't checked out the Management Skills Blog - check it out today - I am confident you won't be disappointed!
