Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill

Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill
By Dan Bowling On January 12, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Psychology At Work


Catchy title, eh? Too bad I stole it from an article in this month’s Talent Management magazine. Don’t tell anybody over there, but do read Ronnie Reese’s article. It is an excellent overview of how talent acquisition in many successful companies is focused on the personality and character traits of recruits, more than their specific job skills.

I know hiring managers who spend more time learning about the background and makeup of the fish they are ordering in a restaurant (wild-caught or farm-raised? Bay or ocean? Cold or warm water? Was it a happy fish?) than of their new hires. Or they exhaustively review and test the skills and job experience of the candidate but make no inquiry into attitude.

Big mistake. “Eighty-nine percent of the time, if a new hire fails, they fail for attitude, not for skills,” says Mark Murphy, author of Hiring for Attitude, quoted in the aforementioned article. Famed research psychologist Chris Peterson bemoans the failing of many companies to hire for attitude in one of his academic articles, saying “strengths of character are a neglected but critically important resource for organizations.”

The good news is more and more organizations such as Apple, Google and Ritz-Carlton understand that the psychological makeup of their recruits is critical, and go to great lengths to ensure new hires can fit within their unique cultures. In fact, much of the aforementioned Talent Management article focuses on issues regarding cultural fit, providing examples from “great attitude” companies such as Southwest Airlines. The general rule – one I firmly endorse – is to figure out what strengths make your organization special and unique, and try to identify recruits who reflect those strengths.

But are there certain traits that are present in the all successful hires, regardless of the specific culture of the organization? Peterson, along with his research colleagues Martin Seligman and Nansook Park, suggest there are. Among the most common are:
Optimism
Hope
Curiosity
Zest

By now you are probably saying “sure, this makes sense, but we don’t have the resources to hire a bunch of Ph.D.s to redesign our talent acquisition processes to scope out these things.” The good news is that the Internet, as well as certain research foundations, have made measurement tools readily available, inexpensive and non-intrusive. I have written about several of these in past blogs, including Peterson’s free Values in Action inventory of strengths. In the time it takes you to read this article, you could have started taking one of these surveys yourself, and within moments have a printout of your strengths, traits and attitudes (links to the VIA can be found in the blog about it). Go ahead, give it a test drive, then try it out on a few people during the pre-hire process (there are far fewer legal implications than you might think). If you don’t like the VIA, several of my more dedicated readers have provided links to similar tests their firms provide, and I imagine in the comments posted under this you’ll be given some more examples to check out.

Even if you don’t want to institute formal measurement tools into your talent acquisition processes, you can accomplish much of the same thing by following one simple rule: hire optimistic people. Optimism is the mother of all good attitude traits. Evidence abounds that optimism, which is closely correlated with happiness, is a very strong predictor of workplace performance in almost all domains. Yes, law, actuarial work and some investment jobs find a dose of pessimism a helpful professional attribute, but even in those fields it is usually the more optimistic who rise to the top. Optimists close more sales, rebound from failure more quickly, miss less work and are less likely to sue their company if things turn sour.

And optimism is pretty easy to parse out during the hiring process. Ever interview a surly misanthrope who hated his last job and sees problems and roadblocks everywhere when you talk to him? Chances are he’ll find reasons to hate you, sooner or later.

Let the competition have him.



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About The Author
Dan Bowling

Daniel S. Bowling III is an expert on the science of well-being and work and conducts empirical research on this topic through the University of Pennsylvania. Formerly, he was a partner in a major law firm and later, the global head of human resources at Coca-Cola Enterprises, where he directed all HR activities for more than 80,000 employees worldwide. He currently holds faculty positions at both Duke Law School and UPenn. He also leads a consulting firm, Positive Workplace Solutions, that works with some of the largest institutions in the country showing that well-being enhances not just life satisfaction but productivity and performance, and writes and speaks extensively on these topics. He can be reached at editor@TalentMGT.com.


http://blog.talentmgt.com/2012/01/12/hire-for-attitude-train-for-skill/

Starbucks Founder Howard Schultz on How to Overcome Success

Starbucks Founder Howard Schultz on How to Overcome Success

6 Dec 2011

How do you know when your business is regressing? What do you do when you find out?


Last March, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz connected with Lewis Schiff, executive director of Inc. Business Owners Council, for an interview. Schultz was discussing his just-launched book, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul. He spoke with Schiff about Starbucks’s history in general, but he especially focused on his re-entry as CEO in January 2008, and his thoughts about what comes next. Here is some of what he said:
[Success meant] we were literally on this magic-carpet ride where everything we did, in every city, every country, almost without trying, was working. and it produced a sense of invincibility….Hubris and complacency began to establish themselves in the company, and I felt it was like a virus.
You get to thousands of stores, and people think money grows on trees. I had to remind people of the entrepreneurial heritage of the company.
[During start-up] I had such fear, because we couldn’t make payroll….I remember, literally, looking at pieces of paper, deciding what vendor we are gonna pay, and then what vendor we are gonna have to tell a story to.
I found this poster in a magazine—a photograph of hands in dirt, and I put it up in the boardroom. The poster says, “Those people willing to get their hands dirty are going to succeed.”
I wanted to say to our people that, when we started this business, we were in the roots of Starbucks and right now we’re managing the company at 30,000 feet. and from this minute forward, that is over.
I think great entrepreneurs must have the curiosity to metaphorically see around the corner. What’s coming? What can I anticipate that other people don’t see? And then you must have the courage of your convictions to execute the strategy.
There’s been such a seismic change in consumer behavior, and as a result of that, any business—small or large, consumer-based or not—that continues to embrace the status quo is, in my view, in deep trouble.
So the question is, How do you create the balance between preserving your core business but at the same time pushing for relevant innovation?
For us, I never imagined that people were going to be walking in with their computer and spending hours at Starbucks as their office. We certainly never got a rent check. But once we saw that, the question was, could we create something that could enhance the experience?
You’ve got to be curious. Where is technology moving? How is the consumer embracing it? And then you need to ask yourself, What can we do as an enterprise to be highly relevant to the seismic change in consumer behavior?


http://thebuildnetwork.com/2011/12/starbucks-founder-howard-schultz-on-how-to-overcome-success/

Building Better Business Acumen

Building Better Business Acumen
E. Ted Prince - 7/25/10

Return to: http://clomedia.com/views/articles/building_better_business_acumen/


Developing business acumen enterprisewide is a difficult undertaking, but it meets a critical training and development need as well as restores much-needed street cred to the learning function.

What does business acumen have to do with leadership development? This is a common question among CLOs. The fact that it is still asked speaks volumes about where leadership development is — and where it is not.

We are just coming out of the deepest economic recession since the 1930s. Millions are out of work. Companies are still trying to figure out how to produce profits in the face of such challenges as carbon caps, health care reform and social sustainability. If nothing else, business acumen is a critical need for all companies if they are first to survive and then to prosper. Business acumen is a key requirement for being an effective leader.

Business Acumen Before the Great Recession

Flash back to two or three years ago, when companies were still prospering and no one was talking about business acumen in reference to leadership development. When everyone is making money, they all feel that they have high business acumen and that they don’t need any training or development in it.

However, today it has been made clear that many of these executives did not have high business acumen and sorely needed it. The results of ineffective or bad financial behaviors usually appear several years in the future rather than in the year they occurred. In fact, it is often precisely when enterprises are most profitable that business acumen is at its lowest, and anyone promoted into a leadership position will appear to have been responsible for that profitability, even if he or she had no business acumen at all.

Many senior executives in all industries tend to be deluded about their own levels of business acumen. The delusion may actually become stronger as they move up the corporate ladder since the progression reinforces the notion that they got there because of their business acumen.

Before the Great Recession, leadership development was essentially a boom-time phenomenon. It could afford to focus on traditional leadership competencies such as interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and decision making. To some extent, leadership development had atrophied into the study of leadership when things are going well.

Today, we are in a very different place. Business acumen is all about showing how our behaviors directly impact and improve business outcomes, measured in financial and market value terms. Business acumen development aims to fill the chasm in traditional leadership development programs, which involves the behavioral skills that lead to increases in profitability and market value.

Business acumen is defined as the capability to bring about positive business outcomes. The precise definition we use in our work is the behavioral propensity to create capital. Note that “capital” used this way does not always, or even necessarily, refer to financial capital. It also can refer to the creation of social capital, as in nonprofits, or political capital, as in government organizations.

Desired Outcomes of Development

Before we discuss the approaches to business acumen, it’s important to identify the desired outcomes of a business acumen program. These include the increased likelihood that:
Participants are aware of their own impact on financial outcomes and change their behavior to improve this impact.
Participants are more cost conscious. They will know how to make the correct cost-value trade-offs.
Participants understand how their behavior impacts value-creating activities in the organization and, in turn, understand how this impacts gross margin. They will then make behavioral and process changes to increase the gross margin impact of their actions and decisions.

Participants know how to assess their own business acumen and that of their managers and effectively use this information to improve financial and business outcomes.

Participants understand how to improve their alignment with the organization’s financial performance, innovation and market-value goals.

Participants understand how to integrate this approach into other organizationwide approaches, both in the human capital realm and other areas, such as finance, marketing, sales, production and distribution.

You will notice one important omission in this list — nowhere does it state that the person will have more knowledge of finance or economics as a result of the business acumen program. The reason for this is that it is becoming increasingly apparent that business acumen and financial literacy are not the same thing. This is because business acumen is not a technical skill: It is a set of behaviors that are independent from intelligence, technical skills and financial knowledge. This has some important ramifications for business acumen programs.

Business acumen programs aim to have a measurable impact on financial outcomes. Three main approaches to measuring and developing business acumen have been evolving in the market:
Building financial literacy.
Conducting business simulations and games.
Using behavioral tools for assessment and intervention.

Building Financial Literacy

This is perhaps the most common approach, and unfortunately it is also the most misguided. It usually involves either conducting in-house financial training, or for more senior executives, sending them off to a program at a university.

In addition to the fact that having high financial literacy has nothing to do with making money, there are other reasons why this approach generally does not result in the desired outcomes listed above. First, most managers sent off to universities already have business qualifications, so they are getting more of the same — not something different — in the area of improving their own financial behaviors.

Second, universities do not have a model of business acumen. They also do not possess the tools to measure the individual business acumen of their students to establish a behavioral base line against which an intervention program for them can be devised. Furthermore, university courses are not designed to teach business acumen; they are designed to teach the understanding of accepted financial and economic models.

However, there is one exception to the above: conducting internal programs for more junior managers who have no formal business qualifications. Such programs will not provide them with business acumen, but may offer them some knowledge that will help them better understand business outcomes.

Conducting Business Simulations and Games

A second approach is conducting internal business simulations and games. While this approach is a step in the right direction, it comes with its own issues. These include the likelihood that:
These games never involve obtaining a behavioral base line for the participants so one can never know if they had any measurable behavioral impact.
Participants are usually rated by observers; however, the Hawthorne effect states that people act differently when they know that they are being observed. We have no way of knowing how they will actually act if they are not being observed and how they will act in a real business situation.

Often the simulation is too artificial to be of real-world relevance.

One other factor to note is that business simulations are usually conducted with relatively junior staff. It appears that there is the perception by senior managers that these simulations are not real-world enough to meet their own needs at their particular levels. It is relatively unusual for this approach to be conducted with senior managers.

That said, however, simulations and games can be a useful component of a business acumen program — as long as they are not the only component.

Behavior-Based Assessment and Development

In this approach, there is a formal behavioral model of business acumen as well as behavioral assessments based on this model. Participants start by completing these assessments as a basis for an assessment of their business acumen and to provide the behavioral data required for an intervention program targeted at their unique behavioral needs. These assessments are used not only for the assessment of individuals, but also for the assessment of the financial impact of teams they are on, including the impact on the company’s market value.

The rationale for behavioral assessment is that different individuals respond in different ways to financial cues and signals. If we don’t understand these differences, we can’t get a clear picture of individuals’ current capabilities — meaning we won’t be able to address their intervention needs.

In particular, the team behavior data is necessary so that we can understand alignment issues in the financial mission of the individual compared with that of the team, as well as that of the overall organization. As such, behavior-based programs for business acumen are also really team effectiveness programs, in which the aim is to increase the effectiveness of the team in terms of financial and market value outcomes.

Behavior-based business acumen programs are new. Conceptually, they derive from the new disciplines of behavioral finance and behavioral economics, although they also leverage the more traditional topics of personality and competency. We can expect this area to be a key channel for advancing business acumen development in leadership programs, especially at the more senior levels.

The Future

Leadership development has to adapt to become relevant in bad or even “normal” times instead of only in good times. This will require some major changes in leadership development programs and in the mindset of the people who run them.

Many learning leaders may not feel comfortable in the area of business acumen, since often they do not have a business background. Yet, in order to keep abreast of the field, they will have to get acquainted with it. The good news is that this will make leadership development professionals more attuned to the needs of the business side of organizations and provide them with the street cred they need to accomplish important learning and development — and broader strategic — goals.


http://clomedia.com/articles/view/building_better_business_acumen/print:1

Making Ethics Part of the Brand Identity

Making Ethics Part of the Brand Identity
Community: Talent Leadership Track: Leading Ethical Organizations
Webcast: Webcast Airs: February 9, 2012

Many companies strive to stand for something greater than themselves. For example, Apple is synonymous with innovation, and Google is synonymous with search. But the branding of a company and its’ defining culture and mission is the result of a well-executed strategy that incorporates many different leaders and business units aligned to achieving the same goal.

In the same vein, ethical companies are no accident. A culture guided by morality and principles is result of organizations shaping that brand internally, externally, and through the work environment. Internally, ethics must be championed through engagement, diversity and empowerment among employees, while they are externally shaped by social media, consumer confidence, and press exposure. Don’t miss these key takeaways:

Learn what components must be in place to build a climate where employees and clients are advocates of an ethical brand
Discover how fostering a moral organization culture affects employees and customers
Find ways to strengthen ethical climates in your organization

http://www.hci.org/lib/making-ethics-part-brand-identity?utm_source=HCI_Members_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01-20_DD_Lead_Mbr&utm_content=pemimpin2001%40yahoo.com

Fuel-Injected Leadership

Fuel-Injected Leadership
BLOG: Author: Joy Kosta


Years ago, when taking a family drive on Sundays was a typical outing, we would inevitably get lost. This would perturb my older sister (who became a scientist), but for me, being someplace new was when the sense of adventure began (in retrospect, our respective career choices make great sense). My parents used to say (this was before there was GPS and i-phones), "You're never lost as long you have gas in the tank." So I appreciate them encouraging my quest for what's new. And Yogi Berra said, "We're lost, but making good time." However, in today's business world, organizations don't have unlimited fuel (either tangible assets or intangible assets) to find out where they're going. Our individual competitive advantage as a leader is the fuel injection for how our organization runs, stalls, idles, or performs at full throttle.

The #1 question on Gallup Q12 (questions that indicate engagement and productivity) is: "Do I know what is expected of me at work?" According to Wagner and Harter, in The Elements of Great Managing, groups that have high scores on this item are more productive, profitable and creative. Clear expectations account for productivity gains of 5 to 10%. It's hard to achieve your objectives without alignment of your people, yet fifty percent of employees don't know what is expected of them at work, and the more complex the job, the higher the uncertainty. So if you've launched an updated business strategy to kick off the year, don't neglect the follow-up regarding how does this break down into what will people do differently and what actions will they continue. This is what creates a line of sight and cascaded goals that achieve objectives by design.

Bill Kling, founder of the American Public Media Group, in a recent NY Times interview, says, "…There is not one formula for leadership. There are…people who are really good at motivating people. There are innovative leaders who are really good at conceiving of products or spotting talent and have great vision for the company… Every CEO needs an executive team to be balanced to fit their strengths." Marcus Buckingham might recommend that we ask ourselves, what is our individual leadership strength/competitive advantage? And then round out our team with other strengths to compliment ours. Cisco and Lockheed Martin practice "the branding of a company and its defining culture and mission is the result of a well-executed strategy that incorporates many different leaders and business units aligned to achieving the same goal."

Often a leader's primary strength needs to match what the organization needs at that point in time — innovation for start-ups, financial health to stay in the game, and leveraging talent assets all along the way. Bill Kling thinks the strongest criterion for leaders is creativity and innovation. Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, in his new book, The Coming Jobs War, says, "The competition or 'war' for good jobs…is a war for the best customers first. He who wins that war, wins the jobs war. Almost no leader has this figured out." In a Forbes interview of Clifton by branding expert Dan Schawbel, they both cast their vote with the entrepreneurial leader who can conceive of new products and services (and hence create value-adding jobs) that will win customer market share.

We ignore the obvious, that a fresh perspective reveals surprising insights. What if an outside trusted leader toured your company to recommend opportunities? (It might seem like a blend of the reality TV shows, Undercover Boss and Wife Swap!) But if you returned the service, it could be a consultative exchange of shake-up innovative ideas, because after all it is human to have blind spots. Or, what if a board member went undercover to id areas of opportunity? Especially when your board is hiring for a Chief Executive, these insights would provide dialog that prioritizes the qualities needed in the new leader for the company at that point in time.

An HCI executive workgroup member from a fairly conservative (aka highly regulated) industry places high value on innovation, says, "It's time for leaders to do more than think outside of the box. Sometimes it's time to break the box." These questions about maintaining competitive advantage may not keep you up at night, but they are worthy of scheduled reflection and exchange with peers:
What is your personal competitive advantage?
How are you guiding the execution of your new business strategy?
How do you deploy your top team to complement your personal strengths?
How do you invite a fresh perspective (i.e. from a trusted colleague or a Board member) to id blind spots and areas of opportunity?

------------------------------------------------------------
Joy Kosta, HCS, SWP
Senior Director, HCI Talent Communities, Education Faculty , Human Capital Institute (HCI)

As Senior Director of the Talent Development and Leadership Communities at The Human Capital Institute, Joy brings twenty-five years of experience in multiple facets of organizational development, human resources and business management with an emphasis in customer satisfaction, service quality, process improvement, and applying the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. As founder and President of Performance Partners in Health Care, a company dedicated to building better patient experiences, she has authored several curriculums in leadership and staff development, and co-authored with Harold Bursztajn, MD Senior Clinical Faculty member, Harvard Medical School, "Building a Treatment Alliance with Patients and Families."
Experience
Enterprise Practice Leader, Team Leader Talent Development and Leadership at Human Capital Institute
January 2006 – Present

Joy Kosta, Human Capital Strategist, is Senior Director of Talent Communities and Enterprise Practice Leader at HCI. Drawing on three decades in organizational and talent development in multiple industries and as CEO in her former consultancy, she builds robust communities of practice at HCI in Development and Leadership. Joy brings twenty-five years of experience in multiple facets of organizational development, human resources and business management with an emphasis in customer satisfaction, service quality, process improvement, and applying the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, and frequently contributes to articles on talent management and HCI events in addition to Leadership Community webcasts.
Senior Director, HCI Talent Communities, Education Faculty at Human Capital Institute (HCI)
Present



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Building & Implementing a Balanced Scorecard: Nine Steps to SuccessTM

Building & Implementing a Balanced Scorecard:
Nine Steps to SuccessTM


The Institute’s award-winning framework, Nine Steps to SuccessTM, is a disciplined, practical approach to developing a strategic planning and management system based on the balanced scorecard. Training is an integral part of the framework, as is coaching, change management, and problem solving. Emphasis is placed on “teaching clients to fish, not handing them a fish”, so the scorecard system can be sustained.

A key benefit of using a disciplined framework is that it gives organizations a way to ‘connect the dots’ between the various components of strategic planning and management, meaning that there will be a visible connection between the projects and programs that people are working on, the measurements being used to track success, the strategic objectives the organization is trying to accomplish and the mission, vision and strategy of the organization.

More Information:
How does all of this terminology fit together logically?
What is a balanced scorecard?



http://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSCResources/TheNineStepstoSuccess/tabid/58/Default.aspx

http://www.balancedscorecard.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=D%2bEwibKKLeA%3d&tabid=58

The Two Core Fears and the Fear of Failure

The Two Core Fears and the Fear of Failure by Lisa Jimenez

All of these surface fears fall into two categories, which are the core fears: Fear of Failure and Fear of Success. If you experience fear of commitment, responsibility, growing up, or change, your core fear is the fear of success. If most of your anxiety comes from fear of rejection, confrontation, or not measuring up, your core fear is the fear of failure.

Let’s talk today about the fear of failure. The fear of failing is more common to the person who experiences anxiety from confrontation, rejection, or a feeling of not measuring up (the perfectionist). Your fear of failure has held you back. I see it in the new consultant who will not give a class or an opportunity meeting until they can be sure it will be perfect. So they read and reread their training manual to exhaustion. The reality is there is no better training than real-world, in-the-trenches experience!

Failure is part of your journey of success. Psychologists tell us that if a child has not had a serious fall within the first year of life, they are being too closely guarded (smothered). It’s the same with your life. Is your life too closely guarded? Are you being smothered in safety? Do you allow yourself to risk? Give yourself permission to make a big mistake! Every successful life is sprinkled with failure. It means you’re growing! Failure is a part of success. When you change your beliefs about failure—and what it’s about—you’ll silence your fears. Failures are stepping stones taking you closer to success. Give yourself permission to risk, try something new, make a mistake, and live a bold, imaginative, daring life!

Face Your Fear of Failure

Have a great day!
Lisa Jimenez