360 Assessment

Ahhh...now that is a scary question for some, isn't it?  The economy has required all of us to work a little harder and raise our expectations.  It's understandable and part of staying afloat.  Yet, during tough economic times, the importance of motivation can slip from the radar.  We can tend to forget that our employees need to be engaged in their roles at our organization.  We can forget that job satisfaction has a lot to do with productivity.  While the options of our staff may be limited now, we know that will not always be the case.  When the economy turns around, and they can more easily go elsewhere, will you be seeking to hire an entirely new team?

• 360 Assessment - This can be a great gateway to assessing how well your front-line management is performing in this area.  Get a handle on how your employees perceive their direct superiors.  We know, people don't leave jobs, they leave managers.
• Third Party Consulting - Get guidance from a third party who is trained to do so.  Your assessment won't just sit on a shelf.  And, you will be able to apply the data to improve any issues that are found.
• Confidentiality - If the data doesn't remain confidential - even from you - it's likely to be inaccurate anyway.  The fear of repercussions will prevent candid responses, which are a must for valid data.
• Development & Training - Upon completion of a 360 Assessment, each manager will know how they are perceived.  (Am I approachable?  Do I micro-manage?)  True or not, it's about perception and it's up to them to change any negative perceptions employees have that are adversely affecting business results.  Leadership Development and training in how to motivate and engage employees is necessary to see improvement in employee engagement, leading to increased productivity and less likelihood of turnover.

Someone recently suggested I read an article titled, Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made by Ian Mount.  Given that I'm in the business of helping executives understand the importance of motivation to their employees' performance, I found the discussion of whether certain entrepreneurial tendencies are innate and passed down genetically or learned very interesting.  I do think certain personality drives are hard-wired into us.  I also think certain skills can be learned, perspectives broadened and expertise deepened.  So, what's a well intentioned executive to do with regard to the importance of innate motivation to workplace performance and productivity?  I offer some thoughts below. 
 

• The longstanding nature vs. nurture debate has provided a polarizing backdrop for the use of hiring assessments, personnel assessments, 360 assessments and best HR practices, in general.  There has also been a good bit of research into the psychology of selling and what characteristics separate the best salespeople from the rest.  While you can teach sales closing tips to someone all day long, if they are aren't innately comfortable with the risk and uncertainty that comes with the job, the odds are slim of actually improving their closing percentage long term.  The

  Predictive Index® tool can give you the reliable, valid data on your people that you need.

• And so, it comes down to the importance of motivation.  People perform better when they get to use their inherent strengths at work.  For example, if I'm a natural communicator who loves the stage and easily builds relationships and rapport with others, then I'd love a job where I got to do those very things.  Conversely, if I had a job that required me to pour over spreadsheets and compile data with very little social interaction, I'd be miserable - EVEN IF I had the intellectual aptitude and experience to do the analytical work.
• People perform better when the behavioral requirements of their job match their natural disposition.  In thinking about promoting people and how to supervise people for best results, it just plain makes sense to try to understand the motivational drives and natural tendencies that employees bring to their work.  Click here to learn more about how to supervise people in accordance with best HR practices to maximize performance.

Lest you abandon further reading for fear of philosophical torture, I wato focus this article specifically on the space between what is currently required of your leadership team and what will be required in the future.   This "leadership gap" is a shortfall between current and forecasted leadership capacity and PI® can add tremendous value as you try to fill this gap. For example, do your leaders need team building skills?  Will they be relied upon for doing career pathing?  Which of your leaders will be counted upon for creating a strategic plan?  If an employee retention program is important to your future, who owns it?

Filling the Space Between

Sourcing, selecting, and developing leadership talent is a key business battleground, a C-level strategic imperative. Here’s how ADVISA can help.

Too many years in manufacturing, and a few years of traveling around from company to company as a consultant, have taught me that there is no silver bullet. But there are some common threads.

Of course you come across those unique individuals who manage to inspire people by their natural instincts and qualities: you read about them in Fortune Magazine, The Harvard Business Review or USA Today. Or they write their own books. But most successful companies don’t have these famous people leading them. They engage their people through working on 3 main aspects of their business:

• Make all the noses in the business point in the same direction.
• Know your people: pay attention to what makes them tick, listen to them and make them feel special and unique.
• Practice solid talent management.

Are you doing as well at managing relationships as you think you are?  I was certain that I was doing a good job in managing a relationship that was very important to me.  I always made sure I allocated time to be with them.  I was very defensive of that time and did not allow others to invade that space.

In preparation for a leadership course I was asked to complete a 360 assessment.  On the survey I ranked myself well in my ability to manage that relationship.  Others ranked me well in the same category.  What I discovered was the person I was working so hard to solidify the realtionship with did not rank me well in that category. 

It did not matter what I believed or what I intended.  The 360 degree feedback process gave me an opportunity to have a real discussion about the difference between my intent and impact and what that difference means.   What the discussion uncovered for me was that simply being in the room is not good enough.  People want you to be present.  Even though I was often in the room I was not listening and communicating in a way that aligned with their natural methods.  The message they were recieving was I was not listening and did not care.  People want your devoted attention (measured in the terms in which they measure it.)  For many this is how they know you actually care.  The way I measured effort and caring was different and hence my intent did not match my impact.  

Sometimes the best of intention and sincere efforts do not accomplish what we thought we were accomplishing.  This is where the combination of 360 programs, personailty assesssments and manager training programs can provide a wholistic solution.  You can gain the knowledge needed to be a best in class manager.  They provide insights into the perceptions of others, their inherit needs and what you need to be doing to address them.

The tools and expertise offered by Advisa have been helping client companies address these issues for more than 20 years.  Take five minutes to learn what type of leader you are and how we can help.  Simply click the link on the right side of this page. 

Assessment Fatique

Imagine that you're not feeling very well.  Something's sapping your energy, slowing you down and generally making you operate at less than your optimum.  You consult several specialists and each performs some kind of assessment.   By week's end, you've been poked and prodded and thoroughly examined in a number of ways.  In our example, each specialist provides really good insight that explains some of your symptoms but not all. 

If only someone could draw upon all the information, connect the dots, and provide a conclusive diagnosis and prognosis!

Increasingly, for-profit and not-for-profit companies are using assessments e.g. Predictive Index®, Wonderlich and variety of 360 tools.  Malcolm Gladwell writes in "What the Dog Saw" that more data does not necessarily lead to better decisions.  The same applies to assessment output employers accumulate.  If the data is buried in multi-page reports that busy managers are loathe to absorb, the value of the data can fall to zero.

Isolated piles of data distract from the real purpose of gathering the data which is to optimize employee productivity and job performance.  Only when the data collected provide insight into employee past performance; and suggest ways to optimize future employee productivity and performance, is the data transformed into gold.

Turning data into gold

To connect the dots from the assessments and evaluations you employ into a more effective leadership-employee development program, consider a process like this:

1. Start with a frank discussion about individual performance using definable balanced scorecard metrics and competencies
2. Arrange for managers to meet with a coach (internal or otherwise) who is trained to interpret the assessments and knows how to relate their output to the manager's performance evaluation (1). 
3. The manager creates a personal development plan (PDP) that optimizes strengths and addresses shortcomings.
4. The manager reviews his/her PDP with his/her supervisor.

This augments and extends your existing evaluation process while providing added "push" to your efforts.  It connects past performance and assessment feedback to your expectations for future results.  It communicates your expectations clearly, leaving no question about the challenges ahead and how the managers on your team are expected to respond.   It compels every manager to connect dots between his/her actual performance and assessments in the form of specific action plans; and, it can transform your performance evaluation process into a continuing conversation with improved employee productivity as a result.

 "The war for talent is over and the talent won"

- Carl Camden, CEO Kelly Services

Camden went on to state that the days of a limitless talent pool are gone.  Even highly successful companies are scrambling to tap what is left and are adapting their businesses to address the new norm.  

If the war for talent is truly over then the importance of retaining the talent you have and carefully selecting the talent you are recruiting has to follow HR best practices.  You need the best information and tools available to help.  At Advisa we use a full suite of tools and services to help our clients in these areas:

• Hiring Assessments
• Personality Assessments
• Outsourced Hiring Services
• Management Succession Planning
• Leadership Training and Development
• 360 Assessments

This is only a partial list, but the point is there are a number of tools and services to explore that best in class organizations use daily in their organizations.  If you are not taking advantage of some of the tools that are out there and available to you, you are playing the game at a severe disadvantage.  Knowledge and information is the basis that allows you to operate a little smarter than the other competitiors for that same talent pool.  What are you doing to up your game?  

If you would like some help or guidance just click the free consult button on the right side of the page.

The Center for Creative Leadership in Colorado Springs reported that in examining the critical variables for success for the top three jobs in large organizations, they found that the number one success factor is “relationships with subordinates.”

“We had discovered that the manager – not pay, benefits, perks, or a charismatic corporate leader – was the critical player in building a strong workplace.”

First, Break All The Rules  Copyright © 1999 by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

“In the past two and one-half years Saratoga Institute’s Retention Strategy department has interviewed over 60,000 people who left their company voluntarily.  Although there are several variations, in general we find that the principal cause of turnover is the relationship between the employee and the supervisor.”

Jac Fitz-Enz The Saratoga Institute Report 1999


The studies and statistics might seem endless in this area but the answer seldom varies.  Relationships with who you work with is more important than the actual job when it comes to keeping employees (or your job).   Recently many of my clients have said an employee retention program is simply not as high of a priority as it was 2 years ago.  Really?  You have downsized, expect higher efficiency and more out of the staff that is left.  People have watched co-workers leave the organization involuntarily and have lost the feeling of security and some of their trust in management to save their jobs.  Expenses are examined more closely than at anytime in recent memory and need to be controlled.  Corporate IQ has been lost and you are likely getting less discretionary effort, but you believe that the need for employee retention ideas has been reduced?  Sure there might be more available applicants but what about the real cost of turnover?  

Just like a 360 assessment can give you some insights into perceptions around an individual, employee retention surveys can give you some insight into the mood and perception of your workforce as a whole.  Should keeping the employees that are left be important during a down economy?  If so what are you doing to keep yours? The companies and managers that stand out will be the ones who get it done through tougher times.  Although most managers have less time to do it, connecting with your employees has never been more important.  Pick up your coffee cup and go talk to your people.  

• Reflection vs. Feedback - Asking the mirror how fair we are never takes us very far.  We are limited to our own perceptions of ourselves and leadership styles through which to filter our reflection.  Maturity helps as does our own reflection.  Feedback from others on which to build, however, is priceless.  Only a 360 Assessment can provide you access to this information.  The purpose is not simply an anonymous portrait of what others think and see, but what they don't perceive to be present. 
   
• Goals vs. Potential - Reaching your goals is not sufficient if it doesn't include reaching your potential.  Providing the opportunity for this is not as easy as it sounds.  Indeed, it can be quite difficult actually.  There is the risk of failure, or simply not taking the route you would.  Artful leadership can be the difference between those who simply check items from lists and truly attempt to fly.

1. Awareness - Is there an awareness of employee morale and current work satisfaction levels?  Often, we can miss the mark.  Here, a 360 degree feedback process and personality assessments can be invaluable when it comes to finding out where your talent potential pool really lies and where the issues, large and small, actually lie.  
2. Readiness - Now that you know the scoop, leadership development training can be chosen strategically and provide what your leaders, present and those in the grooming process for the future, truly need.  Maybe management skills training is needed?  Or how to motivate employees?  Why would that matter?  It leads to work satisfaction and engaging employees which improves employees retention and employee productivity. 
3. Commitment - Here, the rubber meets the road.  Doing the first two only have a purpose if you do the third.  A strategic planning framework which includes implementing balanced scorecard can be helpful here too providing a guide for what needs to be done.