We’ve been looking at some handy dandy checklists and learning about how to use the power of small wins to engage and motivate our employees. I don’t know about you, but all the “dos” bog me down and I need a scenario. Amabile and Kramer provide us with such a scenario to illustrate their findings, which I summarize below: (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘ assessment tools ’
Who Doesn’t Love a Checklist?
Posted by: Amy on April 13, 2012
We have been looking at how to provide your employees with catalysts and nourishers to have more progress days and higher overall achievement and job satisfaction. Amablie and Kramer have published The Power of Small Wins that we are reviewing to motivate and engage our employee. They have provided a daily progress checklist to review the day and plan managerial actions for the next:
Describe 1 or 2 events today that indicated either a small win or a possible breakthrough.
Catalysts:
- Did the team have clear short- and long-term goals for meaningful work?
- Did team members have sufficient autonomy to problem solve and take (more…)
Sometimes You Just Need a Chart
Posted by: Elizabeth on March 6, 2012
This is where you can rely on the technical to help you make what can otherwise be an emotional decision. We talked last time about choosing the strength that you want to focus on. For Tom, the midlevel manager who undertook this process, this decision was overwhelming. While he was able to answer all of the questions we posed last time to explore his passions and interests within the competency framework, until he broke out the numbers it was a daunting decision. (more…)
Lace Up and Get in Line!
Posted by: Elizabeth on March 1, 2012
We are going to choose the race you will run today in our cross-training program to make you indispensable. In our last blog we decided that we are not going to address your weaknesses. Everyone has them, and unless they are fatal flaws, we are going to cross-train your strengths into excellent leadership attributes.
Choosing between good and good can be quite difficult. It may in fact not matter which attribute you choose since any one of them will lift your overall leadership effectiveness score. However, look to your organization for help. Focus on a competency that really matters to your organization, or one that your culture cares about. Also consider your own passions, what area do you care about that would serve your organization and your career well?
Let’s look back at Tom who chose a series of questions to ask regarding each of the 16 competencies:
- Do I look for ways to enhance this skill?
- Do I look for new ways to use this skill?
- Am I energized then I use this skill?
- Do I pursue projects that require this strength?
- Would I devote time to improving this skill?
- Would I enjoy improving this skill?
Considering these questions gave Tom a way to quantify his passions and then looked to see where those passions matched up with those of his organization. He decided upon “inspires and motivates others.”
What skill will you focus on? Does it match up with your organizations needs and culture? Will you enjoy this skill? Make sure that this will be a beneficial and somewhat pleasant process for you and your organization. In our next blog we will look at selecting complementary behaviors to complete your cross-training agenda.
How Low Can You Go?
Posted by: Elizabeth on February 28, 2012
So you’ve decided to become indispensable. You’ve been following this blog and are determined to rise the top, beyond your better-than average performance ratings. You’ve started thinking about your cross-training program and eagerly gathered feedback from your 360 evaluations. Being the good statistician that you are, you have run the numbers and found your flaws. You are poised to attack – but wait! This is not about your flaws. Unless those flaws are critically below the 10th percentile, and 20% of executives researched do find such flaws and address those linearly, we are going to cross-train.
In fact, we aren’t even going to address some of your average attributes. (more…)
Don’t Overestimate Your Own Strength
Posted by: Elizabeth on February 23, 2012
It’s a common fault. We learned in our last blog series that the majority of employees overestimate their abilities. Don’t make this mistake when planning on which complementary, cross-training leadership skills you will develop. You have to start with a realistic picture of your own strengths – and this will not come from you! Despite the research that shows our tendency to exaggerate our strengths (see our last blog series) it really doesn’t matter what you think, since leadership is all about your effect on other people.
Therefore, we need to proceed with a valid 360-degree assessment. (more…)
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Posted by: Elizabeth on December 9, 2011
We have been examining the 3 “Ds” of successful performance measurement as researched by Jerry Harbour, PhD, and will today look at the 2nd D – Data. Rarely do systems suddenly experience a downturn or failure without prior warning. Data that creates sensitivity and awareness of subtle changes is especially helpful as it may predict pending system shifts that affect your entire organization.
It is clearly impossible to have a good performance measurement system without high-quality, accurate, and believable data. As your mother may have told you, if you eat too many Ding Dongs you just may turn into one. If you have Ding Dong data, you can expect that your performance measurements will be about as healthy. (more…)
“You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure”
Posted by: Elizabeth on November 29, 2011
We’ve said it before, assessment drives instruction. With the $125 billion+ dollars spent on training each year, this instruction must be driven by careful analysis and provide real and measurable value. Who hasn’t heard the mythological “10% of training content actually transfers to the workplace?” When D. Georgenson wrote that rhetorical question he had no idea it was a Pandora’s box. With much researched evidence to the contrary, training has the potential to have a powerful impact on your workforce. But how do you ensure that your training efforts are successful? (more…)
To Fit or Not to Fit, That is the Question?
Posted by: Elizabeth on November 16, 2011
We are looking at the how and why of truly fitting a “best practice” into your organization. Pursing the prolific best practice is noble, but is that practice actually a best fit? Al-Karim Samnani and Parbudyal Singh from the School of Human Resource Management at York University have examined the need for a holistic approach to understanding your organization and determining which best practices will actually be of greatest benefit. The following steps are vital to understanding your needs and finding that best fit: (more…)
Organizational MBTI
Posted by: Chelsea on November 3, 2011
Let’s apply functional pairs to the organization as a whole. To make a decision, you need to communicate and collect information, and then decide. As we stated at the beginning of this entry, communication and decision-making are the two behaviors that are most related to functional pairs. Myers believed that the optimal decision making process uses the four type functions in the following order: Sensing, Intuition, Thinking, and Feeling with specific steps or points to consider with each. See the diagram at http://myevt.com/teamdev/4-mbti-function-pairs
Say your organization is dominantly NT. Your team will likely focus less on Sensing and Feeling. Questions like, “What are other alternatives to consider?”(N) and, “What is the underlying problem?”(T) will come easily and will be comfortably discussed at length. However, questions like, “What will other people think of our decision?”(F) and, “What have we done in the past that works?”(S) will be raised less often. When all four functions are not equally used in the decision making process, the resulting decision may not be optimal. In order to avoid this mistake, teams should be aware of their dominant functional pair preference and actively pay attention to all four functions.
Do you know your “heart of type”? Are you asking the right questions? Making the best decision possible? Is your team as productive as they can be? Understanding functional pairs can help coworkers understand one another, improve decision-making, and consequently, increase productivity. Unnecessary conflict can be avoided when team members understand and respect their coworkers’ communication preferences that are inherent to their “heart of type”.
Managers can improve productivity by hiring a well-rounded team composed of employees with all four functional pairs, and by doing so, will ensure that the decision making process runs smoothly and effectively. An existing team in which some functional pairs are not well represented can compensate for this by understanding what questions they need to ask that might not come naturally to the types represented, but that other functional pairs might contribute to the conversation.
If you know your functional pairs, you’ll know a more satisfied, effective, and productive team.
RSS Feed
