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Business Schools Implement a New Selection Criteria

A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that many business schools nationwide are adding personality tests to the traditional application process. I applaud this move because it will require applicants to not only demonstrate intelligence and aptitude, but also what it takes to relate to others (and themselves) in the real world, a concept otherwise known as emotional intelligence (EQ).

Since 2010, the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business has required applicants to fill out a 206-question Personal Characteristics Inventory. “Companies select for top talent with assessments like this,” stated Andrew Sama, senior associate director of their MBA admissions. “If we are selecting for future business leaders, why shouldn’t we be [using] similar tools?”

Personally, I have had success using my own tool to evaluate people. Specifically, I have focused on i3K—intelligence, intensity, integrity, and kindness. I developed this tool early in my career at Sperry Corporation and have used it ever since. This tool looks at both IQ as well as EQ. I learned early on that EQ is critical to building high-performance teams.

When I later arrived at AT&T, I wanted to get an early read on my senior team. I found no shortage of data from the human resources department, but unfortunately it was of no value to me. According to the files, everyone was doing a terrific job and always had. That’s when I put i3K to work. I was able to get a much more complete picture of my team.

Notre Dame is not the only school to assess emotional intelligence. Yale School of Management has also begun testing volunteer applicants in order to gather data on what traits will predict future success. Even University of Ottawa’s medical school applicants are now assessed for EQ qualities. I expect many more schools, business or otherwise, to follow suit.

At the very core of being Chief we discover that a Chief must not only dictate orders, make decisions, and put plans into action, but must also be the example. In order to achieve this, emotional intelligence is required. Fortunately, EQ can be learned. Not only will business schools be testing for emotional intelligence, but I’m sure they will also be teaching it in the years to come. I look forward to the positive results of these changes.

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Millennials—How We Can Help Them Save Us

Working with Chiefs across many industries today, I am struck by the consistency of the number one issue facing companies: how to unlock the potential of a changing workforce (namely, the Millennial Generation.) In its May 20th issue, Time Magazine writer Joel Stein offers his view of what he calls “The New Greatest Generation.” Joel concludes that Millennials will save us all. In my view and experience, we can make choices today to help them do it sooner rather than later.

According to sources like Forbes, Millennials will make up 36% of the US employee base next year, 50% by 2020, and 75% globally by 2030. Stein’s characterization of this group includes terms like business friendly, innovative, sharing, confident, and nice. This group has huge expectations, feels entitled to choices, and they are “going after what they want.” In short, Millennials offer plenty of potential. In my personal experience, concrete steps can be taken to unleash this potential. Here’s an example.

On February 1, 2000 I joined the Internet start-up Opus360 as President and Chief Operating Officer. Just one month later, NASDAQ peaked and the market began a slide that would wipe out 70% of its value. While many will remember that period as the time the market bubble burst, others will mark it as the first year the Millennials entered the workforce.

At Opus, a majority of our employees were Millennials. Thank goodness! There is no question that this group made many important contributions at a critical period in our young life as a company. In addition, the game plan we used to support this group worked particularly well and offers a potential blueprint for others. I call my five-part plan the All-In Roadmap.

Millennials Apply All-In Roadmap Elements

The roadmap starts with discipline, and Millennials have no problem with it. Although their methods of carrying out discipline may look different than those of past generations, at the end of the day Millennials get the job done.

Millennials crave support. They appreciate recognition and expect fair compensation. They need to know they can pave a path within their organization that allows them to do their best work. And when they deliver, commending their work will ensure continued successful collaboration.

They are very creative. Millennials are well equipped to think outside the box, and willing to act on their instincts: both critical when an organization is faced with new challenges.

They are insightful. As a group, Millennials are amazingly self-aware. They know what they want and are aggressive at pursuing it. Organizations that want to attract and retain these talented individuals need to involve them deeply, seek their feedback and act on it.

They support values-based organizations. Millennials seek meaning. It’s not all about money anymore. Millennials want to connect with organizations that stand for the same things they do.

The bottom line: Many Millennials are now ready to lead and the All-In Roadmap is the right tool for the right time. Good luck!

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Startups and Multinationals: Swapping Lessons

Why are startups so attractive and why do so many of them fail? Why do multinationals continue to expand yet find it a challenge to attract and retain the best talent? The answers to these questions may be found in lessons each can learn from the other.

Let’s start with startups. The author of Drive, Daniel Pink, would argue these young companies offer three key elements of motivation that help them attract talent.

First, startups offer autonomy. With few resources everyone has a key role and a divide-and-conquer mentality. People enjoy the ability to set their own plan and work it. They are clear on their individual scope and they enjoy it.

Second, start-ups offer a great opportunity for mastery. People love to learn new things and experience increased confidence as they improve in new areas.

Third, start-ups often begin with a strong sense of mission. Early employees are attracted to the thought of being part of something bigger than them.

In my experience, too many large companies miss the opportunity to focus on these important attributes. However, larger companies could keep these elements if they remained committed to decentralization wherever possible, continual employee education and training, and a focus on objectives beyond an all-consuming attention to the bottom line.

So where do the lessons go the other way? In my experience there are at least three areas where well-run multinationals have something to offer start-ups.

First, strong multinationals can handle complexity. While change is a constant everywhere, the ability to stay responsive to massive change is a learned behavior and requires a healthy dose of discipline.

Next, strong multinationals are excellent at planning and adjusting. They develop detailed plans with associated dashboards of metrics and measures, including leading indicators to let them know when plans need to be adjusted.

Finally, strong multinationals utilize a well-understood set of values that are consistently communicated to unify their workforce.

In my experience, start-ups can learn from these practices even though it is common to eschew anything that looks too “corporate.” However, startups could benefit if they remained committed to regularly scheduled planning sessions, accountability reviews, dashboards (with leading indicators), and an agreed-to set of values available for everyone to see.

Both the best startups and multinationals excel when they share a practice of encouraging leadership at all levels. By swapping these best practices, each could be more successful.

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Being Chief—What Does It Mean to Be Chief?

A new advertising campaign from IBM asserts that a successful CFO should be viewed as a Chief Future Officer. I smiled when I saw the ad because I thought businesses had exhausted all possible Chief Officer titles. Today, it seems most companies have shifted from various combinations of Vice President titles (VP, SVP, EVP) to Chief titles as a way to identify who is in charge. As companies named endless vice presidents in times past, lately it seems Chief titles are taking over.

This practice has not been limited to business. The same seems to hold true in government where one finds Chief titles of all makes and models, including Chief, Senior Chief, Deputy Chief, Administrative Chief, and Assistant Chief. Recently, I also noticed a shift to Chief titles outside the workforce altogether.

Specifically, a new Lincoln Financial Group advertising campaign advocates that everyone view themselves as a Chief Life Officer®. Their award-winning promotion resonates with a segment of the population that connects a title with authority. But with so many Chief titles out there, do we really know what it means to be Chief?

Thinking back to when I was growing up, I don’t remember hearing or reading the term “Chief” all that often. Certainly there was Commander-in-Chief, and closer to home there was the Chief of Police. (I also recall watching the original television portrayal of Superman where Jimmy Olson invariably referred to Perry White, editor of the fictional Daily Planet newspaper, as Chief.) The term was reserved for those who were in charge at the very top level.

I also remember the stories my Dad told us when he came home from work about what it really took to be Chief.

It’s a Matter of Choice

My Dad was a mid-level personnel manager (human resources) working at the only non-union machine tool shop in central Massachusetts. Dad would tell me and my brothers about grievances, pay and benefit issues, and his challenge of connecting the managers at Heald Machine to the workers so the company could grow. In twenty-seven years at Heald, there was never even a single union vote. Why? Because my Dad treated everyone with respect and led without any positional authority.

Dad taught me that being Chief had more to do with choice than title or level. I have benefited greatly throughout my career from the foundational lessons my Dad taught me.

In the first phase of my career, I worked in one organization at a time. Over thirty years, I served in many roles in five organizations in five different industries. Early on I found myself consistently thrust into turnaround situations. Later, I sought them out. Success in each was due in large part to a specific roadmap that I used to enable Chiefs at all levels to unlock their potential.

Five years ago, I made a personal decision to change my life-work balance. The nature of my turnaround assignments in phase one had taken a toll on the time I was able to spend with my wife Diane and our two children. As my oldest was entering high school, I decided not to pursue another big job until both kids graduated. I founded my own company, Choices & Success LLC, as part of phase two. I began working as a Chief, supporting a limited number of Chiefs in different organizations. It was rewarding to serve others who could use my roadmap and guidance to help them grow as their organizations grew.

BEING CHIEF—Taking It to the Next Phase

I am excited to announce the beginning of phase three with the launch of BEING CHIEF LLC. I will expand my service as a confidant and advisor, supporting select clients’ business and personal growth. In addition, I will be expanding my speaking schedule and my advocacy for Chiefs at all levels. The lessons that started with my Dad are now research-based, broadly road-tested and simplified to help Chiefs and companies grow. In 2014, my new book BEING CHIEF…the CHOICE is YOURS will be published to serve a larger audience.

As we build a community, I am grateful for the opportunity to engage with so many others who believe it’s not about title or level, but choice.

Thank you. I look forward to our continuing conversation.

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Return on Engagement: A New Metric that Matters

Forbes guest bloggers John Hagel, Suketu Gandhi, and Giovanni Rodriguez posted a great article on February 9 titled “The Empowered Employee is Coming; Is the World Ready?” I think the answer to their question is yes, but the key will be the ability for companies themselves to measure the return on their required investment. The authors make a compelling case for the empowered employee in exerpts quoted below. Next, I offer a real-life example of a company that made the choice to invest in their employees AND measured the R.O.E.—Return on Engagement. The results are compelling.

“Return on assets for public companies in the U.S. has collapsed by 75 percent since 1965. Businesses have largely responded to this pressure by focusing on the denominator side of the productivity equation – by squeezing out costs wherever possible. … Employees are viewed as costs.

But here’s the problem: focusing on the denominator of the productivity equation – the cost side – is a game in diminishing returns. Each additional increment of cost reduction is harder and harder to deliver. And yet the pressure continues to mount. What to do?

The key answer that defines the post-digital enterprise is to shift attention from the cost side to the value side. Rather than treating employees as cost items that need to be managed wherever possible, why not view them as assets capable of delivering ever increasing value to the marketplace? This is a profound shift in focus. For one thing, it moves us from a game of diminishing returns to an opportunity for increasing returns. There is little, if any, limit to the additional value that people can deliver if given the appropriate tools and skill development.”

Understandably, much of the business world wants to “see the numbers” before they switch its employee strategy from “minimize costs” to “increase value.” The good news is that examples of companies that are leading in this area exist. I had the pleasure of working with a just such a leading company for more than two years. This organization found success investing in employee engagement. It also has the metrics to prove its strategy worked. Here is a summary of the organization’s story:

After seven consecutive quarters “in the red,” senior leaders at this major financial organization decided to build employee engagement through a multi-faceted plan. The plan included a multi-year investment to increase employee value, and in 2009, the company strategically hired an experienced learning leader to spearhead a three-year effort to improve employee value. The organization also increased its training budget by 15 percent each year, resulting in revamped attitudes and increased employment engagement.

This particular financial organization also wanted to “see” the return for its investment. Here are a few of the selected “returns” announced internally at the end of 2011:

  • Engaged Branch employees converted 30 percent more customers to primary relationships.
  • Engaged Mortgage employees generated 38 percent more mortgages.
  • Engaged Private Wealth employees generated 48 percent more in investment sales.
  • Engaged Commercial Banking employees opened 49 percent more new primary relationships.
  • Engaged Business Banking employees generated 59 percent more revenue.

As a result of the success of the program, the company’s senior leaders tightened their belts in other areas to fund an amazing 300 percent increase in training support for 2012. They were sold on the return for their investment.

Today, there are many companies that include employee engagement as part of their strategic plan. Unfortunately, fewer companies have not made the choice to find the necessary funds and realize the increased value and potential of their employee base. Many organizations operate under the axiom: if it is important, you measure it. In this case, R.O.E. stands for Return on Engagement. As one prominent financial institution determined, it is an important new metric that matters.

source

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Start Your Turnaround Before the Crisis Hits!

Answering simple but important questions could make the difference between choosing a quick fix or a truly broad turnaround strategy before a crisis strikes.

With a fresh year upon us, business leaders would be well-served to review key indicators and determine whether even short term success may be hiding significant long term problems. It may be time for a turnaround plan, depending how you answer the following 10 questions:

  • Are you continually improving your margins?
  • Are you meeting profit objectives primarily by cutting expenses?
  • Are you growing below the market rate?
  • Are you managing your business quarter-by-quarter?
  • Are you regularly measuring customer satisfaction/loyalty?
  • Are you in demand at industry conferences?
  • Are you attracting top talent to your business?
  • Are you retaining your best people?
  • Are you expanding your community of partners faster than your competitors?
  • Are you improving communication with key suppliers?

If your organization cannot answer these questions, you have a choice to improve your management system in the New Year by including them in a new dashboard. If your answers to these questions raise some concern, they should. The good news is you

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can choose to create a turnaround plan before these critical leading indicators point to a real crisis.

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Follow a 7L Path for True Success

There is a commonly used phrase in our culture that appears on coffee cups, bumper stickers, and wall posters that is offered as a recipe for happiness and success in life’s journey. Specifically, Live, Love and Laugh, or the 3L’s, can be seen in homes and offices across our country. With today’s economic, political, and social challenges, these words of wisdom may seem a bit simplistic and optimistic to some, when they are in fact more important than ever.

With all the devices that keep us connected to the office 24/7, perhaps we need a reminder that a healthy life-work balance doesn’t necessarily start with work. Success is not burnout and living must be more than working. At the same

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time, a changing workforce expects more out of the work environment, just as companies expect more out of their workers. When employees love what they do, engagement and productivity both rise. Leaders at all levels need to raise the bar to create cultures where people excel, where hard work and laughter exist together.

And while I wholeheartedly agree Live Love and Laugh are incredibly important ingredients, I also think there is more to the recipe if the objective is true success.

In light of the number of people currently struggling and the severity of the challenges we are collectively facing, we need more. Specifically, we need to consider adding another 4L’s to the mix to truly create success. To the point, it’s time to consider a “7L Path.” It is time to also Listen, Learn and Lead with Light. Here’s how…

With all the differing viewpoints in the world, one might ask why so many people indicate that nobody speaks for them. Perhaps we all need to develop more trust in ourselves and Listen to own internal voice before we look to others for answers.

With all the different advancements in the world, one might ask why we have not discovered how to solve a large and constantly growing list of problems. Perhaps we all need to Learn to be much more open to new ideas and opinions.

With all the different experts in the world, one might ask why we have so few who are able to show the way for others. Perhaps we all need to exercise our own ability to Lead rather than look exclusively to others.

With all the different religions and spiritual practices that guide us united in their recognition of both a higher order and our inadequacies as human beings, one might ask why so many are so sure that “we” are always right and “they” are always wrong. Perhaps we all need to stay focused on the common Light of truth, respect, service, equality, and connection that unite us.

Live, Love, Laugh, Listen, Learn, Lead with Light. It may be too long for a bumper sticker or to fit on the side of a Grande coffee cup, but it is worth the time and effort. This path can guide all of us to true success in work and in life.

This blog is dedicated to my friend Louige.

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A Senior Leader’s Biggest Challenge

Senior leaders in organizations have never had easy jobs. Among lots other tasks, senior leaders are expected to envision, strategize, and plan tactics for their firms after they have thoroughly researched the market for their products/services. Assuming they have developed an appropriate financial plan for their enterprise and have continually updated their competitive profiles, they are also expected to flawlessly implement their plans and measure with quality and speed to produce predictable results. They are also accountable to align their teams by communicating direction throughout their organization where they need to be confident, clear, concise, convincing, and compelling (5 C’s). Taken together, these tasks can seem daunting. Yet, these may be the easiest parts of their job.

The toughest part of their job might be that while they are communicating with the 5 C’s, they also need to be truly open to input and opinions from virtually every stake owner in and around their organization. With today’s unprecedented pace and change, the most successful leaders may be those who can confidently set the direction for a group while intently listening to input from employees, customers, and partners for the changes they fully expect will come.

In Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf describes the approach required of the leader who truly understands that game-changing insight can come at anytime, from anyone. “One must make choices. Perhaps one chooses the same aim or hypothesis again and again. But is always with a fresh and open choice, and it is always under a shadow of doubt.” Leaders open to fresh perspectives are more likely make critical adjustments ahead of others.

Greenleaf also offers a perspective on how a leader can create true communication and engagement. He emphasizes both the exercise of authority and the inner quality of humility that characterize a true servant leader. With a commitment to serve first, a leader is more likely to truly listen. With an underlying belief in equality and respect for every individual, successful leaders appreciate the necessity to learn from anyone and everyone.

With the economic, political, social, and environmental challenges we are now facing, pressure to perform is higher than ever for leaders to perform. Senior leaders will always be looked to for future direction. Their due diligence and the quality of their strategies and plans will continue to be an important starting point for any enterprise. Senior leaders will continue to need to display confidence to their organizations. In light of today’s complexities and uncertainties, however, their long term success balance may hinge far more on the challenge of finding the right balance of confidence and the humility that comes with a healthy dose of doubt.

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All-In Leadership

No matter where you turn today, it seems that groups in both the public and private sector are facing tough tests. With the economic, political, social, and environmental challenges we are facing, blame games seem more common in government and business than ever before. More than ever, we need effective leadership to drive much needed change but it seems in short supply…or is it?

I contend we have plenty of leadership potential, but we are looking in the wrong direction. We need to stop looking “up” when we All should be looking In. All-In Leadership is a term I use to remind all of us about our individual choice to lead and how we can best approach this opportunity today.

My hope is that today’s events will serve as a wake-up call for us to choose to stop delegating leadership to others and step up to our opportunity to set a new direction, each in our own unique way. All-In Leadership also advocates we each make a complete commitment to this opportunity utilizing discipline, insight, support, and creativity.

Discipline starts with a vision we create for ourselves. Who are we and what do we stand for? It is followed by a strategy and plan to accomplish that vision. After we plan the work, we work the plan. Adjustments are anticipated along the way to deal with the unexpected turns in the road. While discipline doesn’t provide complete control, it improves the probability of reaching our vision.

Insight enables us to create a vision and a plan that “fits” us. With so many opinions and views constantly bombarding us “helping” us determine where and how to find success, we need to learn to hear our own voice among the noise. We can find that voice when we are focused, present, accepting, generous, and grateful.

The ability to support others effectively comes after we truly understand their needs. It starts by truly listening to understand and learn from everyone and every opportunity. It also includes questioning, inspiring, encouraging, enabling, and role modeling for others.

The power of our full creativity is unleashed when we connect what we do to who we are. Specifically, when we connect our internal creativity (feelings and thoughts) to our external creativity (our written and spoken words and our actions) we dramatically increase both our effectiveness and our positive influence over others.

All-In Leadership also requires courage. The serious challenges we face individually and collectively can feel daunting if they fall to only a few to solve. We need leadership from senior executives, group managers, and individual contributors. Together, our combined leadership capabilities and skills can make the difference. Why not start today?

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Corporate Culture and Performance

“The single most visible factor that distinguishes a successful culture from a failure… is competent leadership from the top.” —Corporate Culture and Performance

We are coming upon the 20 year anniversary of the publishing of John Kotter’s and James Heskett’s Corporate Culture and Performance. The lessons in this classic are timeless and particularly applicable for those who lead groups today. Rooted in research, Kotter and Heskett provide a blue-print of what to do to build an organization that can sustain strong performance. They also point out that it is not easy.

“Culture represents the interdependent set of values and ways of behaving that are common in a community and that tend to perpetuate themselves.” The performance engine of any company is their community of employees. Specifically, the books central message is that it is critical to build an Adaptive Culture, rather than a strong culture, to create long-term economic performance. Adaptive cultures expect and embrace change. To build the elusive adaptive culture, the authors offer the following:

Senior executives must display an uncommon combination of personal attributes and actions at the very top of a business. Internally, executives must be self-assured and willing to work for others. Externally, executives must exhibit discipline, confidence and humility. According to extensive research conducted by Kotter and Heskett, senior executives must also act to:

  • Create a sense of crisis and a need for change as they set a new direction
  • Communicate consistently and broadly
  • Display an “outsiders” propensity to embrace change and new ideas
  • Reinforce the importance of innovation
  • Build and maintain an “insiders” credibility
  • Institute a balanced focus on the success of customers, employees, and share owners
  • Establish leadership or the ability to produce change as an important focus at ALL levels
  • Decentralize decision-making where possible
  • Promote carefully and demote when necessary
  • Celebrate early success

At a time when so many of our private sector institutions are not performing well, we would all be well served to return to lessons contained in this leadership classic. The good news is that the paperback version of Corporate Culture and Performance was released earlier this year. Is that perfect timing? As a practitioner of the concepts included in this classic, I can assure you it is well worth the time.

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Great by Choice

On October 11th, Author Jim Collins released his fourth in a series of heavily researched books outlining “what it takes to build a great company,” titled Great by Choice with co-writer Morten Hansen. This particular book focuses on requirements for sustained growth in a business world characterized by uncertainty and chaos. The book also consciously builds on, but does not actively reference, the key lessons in the prior three books. The authors build a case that their conclusions complement the important learning offered in his earlier books. These include:

Built to Last – including a focus on the importance of Values

Good to Great – including a focus on the importance of Insight of Level 5 Leadership

How The Mighty Fall – including a focus on the intense Support required of leaders to Never Give In

In Great by Choice, the authors share the results of a nine-year research effort focused on determining those characteristics of companies that achieve superior and sustained performance in the most unpredictable of market conditions. Central among their findings are the importance of the connection between Discipline and Creativity as part of a concept the authors describe as 10X Leadership. “Of course, it is not discipline alone that makes greatness, but the combination of discipline and creativity. “(pg. 77)

As a total body of work, Collins four studies include a deep dive on a select group of 75 companies. As a resource, Collins’ books are invaluable. While certain themes (i.e. discipline) are woven throughout the four books, as a career academic, researcher and consultant Collins concludes that people can build a great company based on their actions and attributes…even in the most challenging of times. I think Collins is spot on.

Going forward, however, this blog will come from the view point of a career practitioner. I believe there is value in the insights and observations of a career business leader who has spent most of his time on the front line, accountable for results. Based on experience, at times I may disagree with parts of the research offered by others or I may offer a slightly different spin. At Choices & Success we APPLY the best of these concepts to drive results and resilience. From this perspective, I will offer a practitioner’s view of HOW Discipline, Insight, Support, Creativity, and Values can be implemented to drive sustained performance. The devil is in the details.

In Great by Choice, Collins offers the following summary of his research on building a great company: “Indeed, if there’s one overarching message arising from more than six thousand years of corporate history across all our research—studies that employ comparisons of great versus good in similar circumstances—it would be this: greatness is not the matter of circumstance; greatness is first and foremost a matter of conscious choice and discipline.”

On that perspective, we agree 100%!

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