Investing in Leadership Futures

Bananas vs. Pintos - Has the pendulum swung too far in mitigating against risk? by Dr. Dirk Baxter

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Since 1906 in the United States there has been an interesting transition in perspective worth noting as we move forward into unknown and uncertain times. Business leaders have gone from being coldly calculating; effectively ignoring a business’s responsibility to workers and the public (e.g., made famous in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”), through a more balanced approach to doing business, to a current mode that is wrought with figuring out what could possibly go wrong before taking too many steps. This newer mode has leaders deeply evaluating financial risks, far reaching public risks and brand risk in order to mitigate against negative outcomes. Though I am a fan of hedging against the downside, I wonder if the pendulum has swung too far from being blind to black swan events (defined as low probability but high impact events) to being scared of everything?

4 Legal Leadership Strategies to Build In-house Legal Capability

4 Legal Leadership Strategies to Build In-house Legal Capability by Dirk Baxter, PhD SPHR and Karen Steadman, PhD

Having the right in-house legal counsel team is an increasingly important facet of a successful talent strategy, however it is often neglected.  If your organization’s current state consists of what would be considered the bare minimum [individual PDPs (personal development plans), career planning meetings individually every 6-12 months, and recruiting for technical expertise], you might be in for some bad news.  The complexity of the modern market and political landscape requires a more agile and interpersonally savvy legal team than previous scenarios.  Here are four strategies that legal leadership should incorporate to help increase the team’s capability.

What Charlie Sheen’s recent performance should teach us about Talent Risk Mitigation

“The most important decisions that businesspeople make are not what decisions, but who decisions.”  - Jim Collins, “Good to Great”

In the entire Charlie Sheen saga that has been playing out over the past several weeks we really are seeing what can go wrong with mismanagement of top talent who make the company a lot of money.

Press Release-Keynote Speakers for Consulting Conference-John Byrne, Dan Denison, Chip Conley

LAS VEGAS, NV  – January 24, 2011 – The Society of Consulting Psychology  will hold its Mid Winter Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada to explore how organizational consultants create value for their clients through the use of applied behavioral science in change and learning.  The conference will run from January 27^th thru January 30^th and will be held at the Wynn Las Vegas.

Part II – Always Play your Best Hand – More Leadership Lessons for Raising your Game - Dr. Karen Steadman and Dr. Dirk Baxter

 
Our last article with leadership lessons from the world of poker resonated with so many people (leaders and poker players alike), here are a few more lessons to raise your game at work.  

Always Play your Best Hand: 3 Lessons from Poker for Raising your Leadership Game – Dr. Dirk Baxter and Dr. Karen Steadman

Watching poker tournaments is a fascinating lesson in human behavior.  While new and amateur players believe luck has a lot to do with winning, professionals approach poker exactly the opposite - every hand is an opportunity to play their best.   Every move is a conscious decision including folding when appropriate.  Lucky breaks are capitalized rather than anticipated.  The game is often long, the stakes high, and one cannot afford to drift in and out “hoping” for the best outcome.    In the world of work, many successful leaders have a similar focus – a balance of routine, high engagement levels, and the ability to take calculated risks that are far from haphazard.   Mike Caro, the “Mad Genius” of poker who is not only a professional player, but a behavioralist and casino executive as well, outlines lessons that transcend Texas Hold ‘Em.  Here are a few of our favorites:

Most of Your Profit comes from Borderline Decisions: Most poker winnings (and prevention of loss) come from borderline decisions –

Assessing Leaders Who Might Make Bad Decisions by Dr. Karen Steadman

I have a friend in the mortgage industry who shared the following sentiment with me about refinancing:

“Do not try to use common sense to understand this process, there is none of that in our industry at the moment.  The mantra in our industry is “rules over risk” which means that they are not concerned whether your loan represents a risk or not, it is all about whether we are able to meet the guidelines.”

Rules over risk?  This approach concerns me. 

Assessing Talent in a Tough Economy - article featuring Dr. Karen Steadman

Exciting press for Leadership Futures on the Atlanta Journal website and featured in the print edition today

Assessing Talent in a Tough Economy 

posted July 1 and July 11th, 2010 by Laura Raines for the AJC

 

Many companies have been treading water, struggling to stay afloat in the choppy waters of a tough economy. And their employees are tired, said Karen Steadman, president of Leadership Futures, an Atlanta consulting firm that helps corporations assess, coach and transform their top leaders and teams.

Steadman helps companies identify and develop their high-potential employees.

Reminiscing on Current Times of Unprecedented Challenge - Drs. Karen Steadman and Dirk Baxter

As organizations grapple with economic turmoil, specialty market upheaval, environmental crises and ever-increasing requirements from both consumers and creditors, some leaders may find their focus waning.  If something falls outside of immediate issues, it may fall off altogether.  Other leaders, however, are learning more than they realized possible.  We believe these unprecedented times will provide significant lessons that, if captured and acted upon by leaders, will provide accelerated learning points that are difficult to simulate any other way. 

The Willow and the Oak – Leadership Flexibility Rooted by Strong Systems- Drs. Karen Steadman and Dirk Baxter

 

Since the Chinese outlined talent selection thousands of years ago, the selection and retention of top talent has been extraordinary. Organizations spend billions each year on tests, assessments, and recruitment strategies. Some organizations emphasize technical skill for selection and promotion which, unfortunately, may be a set of infrequently changing variables once beyond entry professional levels....... 

 

Derailed - new book by my former boss - Dr. Tim Irwin

I am excited that my friend and colleague Tim Irwin is launching his 2nd book on November 3rd - and it could not be any more timely.  Derailed chronicles the collapse of six high-profile CEOs (Robert Nardelli, Carly Fiorina, Durk Jager, Steven Heyer, Frank Raines, Dick Fuld) and the factors that drove their downfalls, finding that derailment actually happens long before the crash and can be avoided. Here is more information about Tim, the book, and the foreward by Patrick Lencioni.

www.DerailedLeader.com

Investing in What Matters: Linking Employees to Business Outcomes

Today, we dive into the world of analytics and human capital in an interview with my colleagues Shane Douthitt and Scott Mondore from Strategic Management Decisions (SMD). Always in search of wise investments, I believe the power of analytics is key to solving today and tomorrow's business challenges ...I find it very interesting that as I post this interview, IBM announces their purchase of SPSS - predictive analytics software.    In my interview, SMD shares their deep expertise in developing human capital strategies based on analytics linking employee data to business outcomes as recently published in their book "Investing in What Matters: Linking Employees to Business Outcomes"

 

 

*What is the main theme of the book and your work?

We provide a structured approach for human resource (HR) professionals to instruct corporations how to use solid analytics to connect employee data to business outcomes. "Investing in what matters" uses a case study approach to help organizations use the data they have to transform their workforce into their biggest asset. 

 

*What experiences compelled you to write this book?

We have worked as internal HR executives, external HR consultants as well as corporate strategy executives and line-of-business leaders. We have seen HR from all angles and have had great success over the past 15 years in these roles applying our methodology to show the value of what we were doing in HR. We wanted to write this book to help HR leaders become true business partners and show the value of the work we have dedicated our careers to...

 

 

*How is your work with HR data unique compared to everything else that has come before it?  What are the differentiators?

To date, the work that is out there is based on assumptions and weak analytical techniques.   The work on HR Scorecards focuses on efficiency metrics and employee engagement—none of which are business outcomes. Efficiency metrics are strictly for functions that are viewed as cost-centers who can only show value by cutting their budgets. This does not have to be a soft science...far from it. Our approach is a simple, practical way to take the vast amounts of HR data that already exist in organizations (training, surveys, competencies, demographics) and link them to actual business outcome data that shows cause-and-effect relationships. This allows HR leaders to show a monetary impact on the business and to also be held accountable for the business reaching its goals. This is what is truly meant by getting a “seat at the table”.

 

*Can you give us an example of a company that followed your advice and has realized gains in their investment?

A large grocery chain was losing $93 million dollars a year in losses called ‘shrink’ (e.g. employee theft, food losses, spoilage). The company had worked on their supply chain and distribution issues with some impact. However, the head of the shrink initiative realized that changes in behavior was the one area that would yield the greatest benefits. We implemented our methodology which pulled in all of the HR data and we discovered specific competencies, attitudes and hiring process issues that were directly driving shrink. The organization implemented initiatives to work on these specific areas and are now already ahead of the total annual plan for the year (and it’s only July).

 

*What are some "a-ha's" from your experience that drive the advice you provide to organizations:

We have ten principles in the book that help frame the next steps:

1. Organizations already spend significant amounts of money on their people….they just don’t spend it on the right things.
2. Organizations make investments in people without any data or with the wrong data.
3. Employee engagement in itself is not a business outcome.
4. People and organizations are complex. The linkages between attitudes and outcomes have to be understood within your organization using your data.
5. The people data and outcome data do exist—you just have to go and get it.
6. The organization’s data exist in silos.
7. There will be obstacles and barriers to obtaining the data (e.g. politics, turf battles).
8. Once a connection/linkage is made with the data—accountability is unavoidable (and that’s a good thing).
9. Don’t assume a link between employee data and business outcomes—define it and understand why or why not.
10. Perceptions alone do not show up on the profit and loss statement.

*Considering everything that businesses are handling at the moment, why is linking employees to business outcomes even more critical right now?

Our work outlines a process that organizations can follow to connect investments in employees to the bottom line. In the current slow economy, as organizations have been looking to cut expenses--our approach allows them to make people investment decisions based on cause-and-effect and ROI analyses. However, this should be done no matter the shape of the economy as HR, to this point, has struggled to show a return on investment.

 

In other words, there is never a better time than the present to invest wisely for the future.

 

For more from Scott and Shane, please see www.strategicmanagementdecisions.com