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Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
Ron Ashkenas, an author, consultant and expert in GE workout processes discussed the challenges with succession and talent planning. In short, many organizations spend an incredible amount of hours on talent management and most have not seen the benefits.
When the process doesn’t work, a typical reaction is to re-design the talent system or spend countless hours studying and borrowing from other organizations. Ron talks about common pitfalls with this approach, either lack of adaption or adoption.
Lack of adaption is about moving a process from one organization to another without changing it. Imagine the disaster of taking a GE practice and plunking the same process at Disney. Adoption focuses on the lack of buy-in from leadership, Ron states, “as though the tool itself will generate results.” And, sadly many believe this or view the talent challenge as an HR issue.
Reflecting on the conversations and presentations at the Diversity and Inclusion conference organized by Community Business, there’s another pitfall that is rarely discussed, ’bias’ particularly gender and cultural bias. Catalyst a leading non-profit organization and a gender think tank talks about how talent management often becomes a roadblock for women. Last year, DDI, a human capital research firm produced a report stating that “women more so than men fall off the talent ranks.”
Why or what contributes to this problem?
Two ideas and one solution come to mind:
1. Bias – ubiquitous and unconscious, and a mental fixedness on leadership.
2. Politics – ambivalence towards power and an aversion to corporate politics.
One solution demand “courageous leadership” from everyone. Raise awareness, challenge thinking and take a counter intuitive approach to politics; use power for the good of the organization and level the playing field for everyone.
Will talent management be different as a result of raising awareness?
Try it.
And start building your network.
Steve Tobak states, “10,000 twitter or facebook fans aren’t worth 10 solid network relationships to an executive.” He’s right.
Look Up From Your Desk
Stop working the 15 hour day
Create a “Not to Do” List
And, build 10 solid relationships this year – (there are only 65 days left)
Making connections is not about selling yourself either. Watching these types of schmoozers makes many cringe. Maybe it’s the word schmooze ”to chat idly; gossip or networking to create a group of professionals to help you - that repels many.
Whatever you call it - get over it.
These are leadership skills, undervalued, rarely taught, and frequently discussed, with a wink and a nod, in hushed tones followed by “he or she is SO political.” Yet, oddly enough, just about every leader excels at this – networking.
Maybe we need to change the word. Connections and of course, links sounds more palatable.
Another tip, when you’re out there connecting, building alliances or affiliations (new words to consider) learn how to listen. Another great leadership quality that is often overlooked and undervalued.
Women listen and men do too, but my sense is women listen more.
The point is, listen without judgement and reflect back on what your new connection says. This shows you’re listening, not dozing.
Instead of putting your head down, to send one more email or add another piece of data to your spread sheet, follow Chris Brogan advice, “we’re all doing work but we have to decide which work grows us.”
So, which work will move you to the next level? Spreadsheets or schmoozing?
IQ for students
EQ for managers
PQ for leaders
What’s PQ? The ability to navigate corporate politics, positively.
Adept at EQ – to build your Political Quotient -watch, follow or work with a savvy leader.
PQ secrets simplified:
- Build your profile as a leader, expert and knowledge source
- Connect with influential people, information and opportunities
- Be visible and talk about what you do
- Move beyond silos, connect with the broader community, rise above turf battles and watch power plays
Now that you know this…
Discover who really gets things done by mapping the informal structures inside your organization. Parallel to formal structures, these informal networks are communities where decisions are made and new ideas executed. The unofficial, informal network of relationships and coalitions. Understand this part of the organization and you will understand how power and influence works.
Ask yourself, “how connected are you to these networks?”
Last week, a relatively new Finance Manager told me she went out of her way to build a strong relationship when a new leader of Asia Pacific was appointed. While going over the finances, she provided this leader with market insights, competitive landscape, and information on the informal networks inside the company. Having access to this information and sharing this knowledge, helped her gain credibility – quickly.
Build your PQ – sniff out the informal networks and make connections today.
When you hear the word, self promotion, do you cringe? And think, “well, I’m not doing that – he may, but I’m not.”
Or
“A waste of time and I was raised with proper values, to be humble and not brag.” Besides results speak for themselves.
I read a great headline last week — Content is NOT king — only self promotion is.
Think about that.
Sadly, self promotion, like politics gets a bad rap, but honestly being visible and creating a crowd of sponsors is what it’s all about.
The trick is when you’re shouting about yourself, there needs to be substance behind your talk. Or it’s just talk. Once you’ve created a crowd, your followers will begin to promote for you. But you need to take the first step in letting others know what you do.
I worked with a highly creative brand manager, Lana. She learned early on in her career to connect with sources of power and talk about her team’s accomplishments. By doing so, she was promoting herself, not just the team.
Detailed, strategic and a great communicator – every fortnight the organization received a message from Lana about her team and what they were working on or how the organization benefitted from a new product launch. Some may have seen this messaging as overkill, but Lana had a team of talented managers doing great work and she wanted everyone to know.
Many executives talk about the inability to find talent – and about 70% of employees believe they have more to offer – Is there a role for self-promotion? Absolutely.
Take a page out of Lana’s book and start talking about what you and your team are doing…..
…. And watch your career take off!
