Appraisals

It's been a business practice for 50 years or more. It's likely here to stay forever. And, every organization's business performance relies on it. Yet, only a meager few have figured out how to garner real value from it. And for those few, their business results cause others to sit up and pay attention:

• In 71.6 percent of organizations, 75 percent or more of all Key Performance Indicators were achieved.
• In 57.8 percent of organizations, revenue increased by 1-20 percent or more.
• In 44.5 percent of organizations, engagement increased by 1- 20 percent or more.
• In 28.2 percent of organizations, voluntary turnover decreased by 1 percent or more.

We're talking about performance management. It's time to seriously reconsider traditional approaches and reinvent it to align more closely with how the few implement it. Performance management has evolved appraising past performance to developing future potential. Join this webcast to learn about their secrets.

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http://www.talentmgt.com/events/174-the-new-approach-to-managing-performance-from-appraising-past-performance-to-developing-future-potential?utm_source=webinar_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tmwb

Leadership Pipeline

From Training Industry Blog

Freeing Your Leader Within

Building the readiness of any leadership pipeline can find powerful challenges in a no-normal world. Let’s face it, in an era of totally disconnected events, it is often a matter of opinion as to whether human skills development even pays bottom-line dividends, and many training delivery methods are no longer affordable or effective.
Sometimes it’s as if we’re attempting to implant not just their competency – but their commitment as well. The 21^st century demands the highest quality of leadership. However, filling our pipelines with ready candidates is more difficult than ever.
Let’s take a look then at a few simple truths that might help guarantee, or at least diagnose the viability of your leadership pipeline:
Finding a higher calling – if moving into management is all about money, power or perks your pipeline will leak at the junctures of downturn, acquisition, and even growth. You cannot buy commitment; it only elevates your zero-base.
Following the Law of 29 – it takes a multi-touch approach to allow for habit formation and affirmation. Becoming a leader, a first-class noticer of others, is not a once and done proposition.
Using the Rule of 3 – look for patterns of behavior or achievement. Three is the minimum number of data points it takes to establish or discard a pattern. Don’t jump at the first flash of a candidate’s promise. But, when it’s obvious to everyone but you that a candidate lacks potential, examine your own motives.
Measuring it will change it – publishing of metrics against which candidates will be measured defines the arena. We used to believe that if you can measure it you can change it – we’ve since learned that simply measuring will impact outcomes. Don’t leave your people wondering what the critical success factors of selection criteria will be.
Inspire, or at the very least, unsettle – you can’t create motivation, but sometimes you can be a catalyst to help another get started, a catalyst for movement. Short-term, extrinsic motivation can help overcome inertia. Longer term, intrinsic motives must take over or momentum dies.
Equipping, not just educating – as you develop your leadership pipeline don’t settle for simple knowledge transfer. Action learning and real-time coaching is what moves from vision to results.
These few simple truths can strengthen your leadership pipeline ten-fold while giving you the courage to free your leader within.

         

About the Author

Don Brown

Don Brown is the developer of ‘The Leader’s Daily’ and co-author of “Bring Out the Best in Every Employee” (2012 McGraw-Hill), “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – in Sales” (2011 McGraw-Hill) and “Situational Service® - Customer Care for the Practitioner.”
Don has spent 30 years ‘helping people with people’ for the likes of Anheuser-Busch, Ford Motor Company, United Airlines, Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Jaguar Cars, SYKES, and Hilton Hotels. You can email him at don@donbrown.org.

Mindfulness for Productivity

Have you heard this one? Probably not, because it's unimaginable. Why would mindfulness and productivity be hanging out? After all, mindfulness is about being in the present moment, living consciously and joyfully, paying attention on purpose. Productivity is about efficiency, continuous improvement, increasing output, doing more with less. At first glance, these two appear to be polar opposites. But look again. Mindfulness and productivity have one striking thing in common: They are focused on where and how time is spent. Consider this formula: Organizational productivity = output (value created)/Input (resources consumed) In the knowledge economy the key resource is leadership time. So we can simplify the formula even more: Productivity = value/time By this definition there are two primary ways of increasing productivity: 1) Increase the value created and/or 2) Decrease the time required to create that value. In 1693, William Penn said "Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." If he were to witness today's corporate environment, he might observe that, despite staggering progress elsewhere, our relationship with time has not changed in the last 320 years. Case in point: We recently asked 12 executives of a large corporation two questions: Visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/renee-cullinan/mindfulness_b_5976864.html for full article Visit leworldtour.com to attend Learning Extravaganza in KL and increase your productivity

Performance Management Mindset

Great article from Talent Management http://talentmgt.com/articles/6633-changing-the-performance-management-mindset#.U_igMdL7Swo.twitter

Be capable not just competent

I am grappling with a hard choice. Should I make it to the Singapore Conference organized by the Institute of Adult Education. As I was browsing through their 2012 Conference blog, I found an interesting post. Vocational education and training focuses too much on meeting required roles and tasks and too little on developing the individual. And that is a big problem, says Professor Leesa Wheelahan. It is a big problem because many students don't end up in jobs that they train for. It is a big problem because in liberal economies like Australia and Singapore, vocational education and training is often treated like a lesser cousin to higher education. It is a big problem because by focusing on rote learning and following formulae, students are not empowered to go beyond what they are "qualified" to do. In other words, a plumber will be a plumber will be a plumber forevermore. If someone wants to be a plumber, then it's all fine and good, but what if he wants something else? How has he been equipped to do so? All these questions are extremely relevant to Singapore. Just think about our ITE system. Can you imagine an ITE graduate managing an NUS grad? Now ask yourself, why not? Prof Wheelahan's passionate argument is to move away from competency-based training and into capability training. Focus on using skills as a lens to view the world, not just on applying said skills. Teach math, she says, not just formulae. This, she argues, would help not just graduating students, but adult learners, in their transitions from one job to another, from an occupation to the next. Strong words, bold vision. Now, how do we do it?

Skills Gaps

The following article from Talent Management.com and sponsored by SABA outlines the soft skills gap issue. Survey: Soft Skills make up the Biggest Competency Gap Ninety two percent of senior executives in the U.S. acknowledge there is a serious gap in workforce skills, according to the “State of the Economy and Employment” survey from Adecco Staffing US. Yet for all the traditional talk about a skills gap in technical and computer skills, 44 percent of respondents cited soft skills — such as communication, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration — as the area with the biggest gap. In fact, only 22 percent cited a lack of technical skills as the culprit for the U.S. skills gap — with leadership (14 percent) and computer skills (12 percent) following behind. When it does come to the gap in computer skills, Gen X executives — more than any other generation surveyed — are most likely to believe this is the skill that most seriously affects the U.S. workforce. As for business implications related to the U.S. gap in skills, the survey found that the majority (64 percent) of senior executives who believe there is a skills gap feel the greatest threat to U.S. businesses is investment going to companies abroad instead of staying in U.S. — 34 percent believe the U.S. gap in skills poses a threat to businesses research and development capabilities. Other findings include: U.S education system needs to better prepare future generation of workers. According to the survey, more than half (59 percent) of respondents do not believe colleges and universities in the U.S. offer curriculums that adequately prepare students for today's workforce. Apprentice/training programs could be a solution. Among those respondents who said there is a skills gap in the U.S. workforce, 89 percent believe corporate apprenticeships or training programs could help alleviate the problem. Yet 42 percent said the greatest barrier to creating in-house training programs is the cost of development. Manufacturing suffering most from skills gap. Of those who believe there is a skills gap in the U.S, 30 percent said it most affects the manufacturing industry. Other industries cited included technology (21 percent) and professional and business services (19 percent). Interestingly, as dire as the need is for skilled workers in the U.S., senior executives did not feel the skills gap poses a direct threat to the U.S. economy; only 13 percent cited it as a major concern. Instead, federal spending (24 percent), global competition (22 percent) and high unemployment (20 percent) were called out as what they feel are the greatest threats to the U.S. economy.

Don Kirkpatrick passes away

Don Kirkpartick This morning I heard news from Jim Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kirkpatrick, the son and daughter in law of legendary Don Kirkpatrick that Don has passed away at the age of 90. Truly a legend in the HRD Evaluation field. More importantly a fine man, a great human being. I had known Don for a long time if I remember it right in 1983. As a young kid I had chanced to see a brochure of his programme in my mentor and Malaysian HR Guru, the late Sam Abishegam's office. I wrote to him an air mail letter inviting him to Malaysia. Next thing I knew, he and his wife Fern were here in Malaysia. We worked with some great companies: Mobil, Genting and so on. He was very much an American and I remember he espoused Republican values and he was so fond of the late Ronald Reagan. Even though I disagreed with many of his views, he grew fond of me. It was a joy talking to him and Fern. As a young graduate, he allowed me the trust to bring him here. I had no car; yet, he did not mind the hot Datsun taxi rides even though he was a legend used to very high class standards. We did not do much work but kept in touch. We brought him for Asia HRD Congress on a couple of occasions and did a little bit of work with Brunei Shell and other organisations but given his age, I was nervous to fly him all over the world. Again, while I did not attend very many of his workshops I continued to exchange ideas and he was a 'giver'- he believed knowledge belonged to the world. He was a religious person committed to moral principles. He made me feel good. Years later I had a wonderful opportunity to meet him more often. Based on his recommendation, we had his son Jim Kirkpatrick work for us in SMR USA. During the lst few years we exchanged the occasional Christmas and New Year greeting. A wonderful man who valued friendship more than money; one who made everyone comfortable and good. And a professional who contributed his four level Evaluation framework freely to the world. May his soul rest in peace.