Saving a Career from Derailment

One of the more challenging and rewarding services PSG provides is in the area of executive coaching. Each assignment is unique, requiring creativity in approach and a recognition that answers often lie beyond the obvious.

Recently, we were asked to help a group controller in a large international company save his career. He had a brilliant financial mind and his rise through the ranks had been meteoric. Responsible for the preparation and analysis of quarterly reports to the CEO and Board of Directors, part of his job required him and his department to work with the business units in processing 47 different sets of financials.

Diagnostic discussions revealed that executives at the business units perceived him as an ambitious, driving and self-serving, single-mindedly focused on his own advancement to the exclusion of all others. They also experienced situations where they were blindsided and caught “doing things wrong.” In short, there were no relationships and no collaboration.

At the same time, we found a man bored with the mundane and, in his mind, ten steps ahead intellectually of his colleagues and direct reports. There was also no recognition of the need to provide customer service to the operating units that supplied the quarterly numbers. The resulting attitude of his department was demanding, critical and uncompromising.

His management style and attitudes were poisoning the work environment, and it was obvious, without intervention, his future with the company would be derailed.

Our findings required a shift from the more conventional coaching role related to management style to the broader spectrum of issues. The outcomes were as follows:

• The controller’s recognition of the issues and his wholehearted commitment to move rapidly to address them;
• Successful efforts to build collaborative relationships with the presidents and staffs of the business units;
• Resolving system problems in the department;
• A shift in focus by the department to provide quality customer service and facilitation, as opposed to demands;
• Increased focus on the basics of performance management in terms of reporting and accountability, ongoing feedback and coaching, and addressing issues raised by direct reports and department professionals.
  

Following an extremely intensive coaching relationship, there was a dramatic turnaround in the perceptions of colleagues, including the HR department which was tracking progress.

The impact on the controller? While the changes are still a work-in-progress, this coaching initiative has put his career back on track with favorable implications for the business units and prospects of greater effectiveness, efficiency and improved morale within his own department.

There are numerous similar situations in most companies in various functional areas. It doesn’t have to be in accounting. If you’d like to chat about these kinds of challenges, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Where do you stand with your manager?

Here’s a short exchange that might strike a responsive chord.

John: Michael, I guess we’re meeting because your manager told you that you need an executive coach.

Michael: I’m certainly under pressure. I’ve been stretched incredibly thin and I’m just not coping as effectively as I’d like.

John: What’s the problem? Not enough resources? The wrong priorities? Too much into the details and not watching the big picture?

Michael: You know, it’s a strange thing. I’ve had all this responsibility pushed onto me with limited resources. I ask for help, get very little and I’m knocking myself out.

John: Did you ever get any feedback that it’s working, or more to the point, what’s not working?

Michael: Well, it’s really confusing. I got an “exceeds expectations” in my last performance evaluation a few months back and my highest incentive payout ever. But now, all of a sudden, everything seems to be going wrong. Plus, I haven’t had any direct feedback from my manager.
John: But you know that it’s not working, right? You don’t feel good about your work, you’re always scrambling, and you and your direct reports aren’t delivering.

Michael: Yes. It would be nice to get a straight answer from my manager and to be clear about what he’s not happy about. Some direction would also help.

John: Part of the success of this coaching program will be better, more focused, communication between you and your manager and your improved ability to manage up. Also, we’ll review in-depth the competence of your own management team and determine what you need to do to strengthen their skills. As long as your department has limited bench strength, you’ll never avoid getting into the weeds. Competent people will get the work done and free you up to focus on the more strategic issues and work more effectively with your peers.

Michael: Let’s do it!

The lesson from this conversation: Get managers to confront the issues! A good coach will do that and more, including, in this case, helping Michael’s manager manage down more effectively.

PSG has experienced, mature coaches to assist clients in navigating through these situations. We also provide the essential feedback through our 360o reviews to enable managers to know exactly how their direct reports, peer managers and even customers perceive their management and leadership styles. PSG also provides training for managers in coaching skills and managing with emotional intelligence,

Conducting Effective 360 Reviews

The 360 Review, if managed properly, is one of the most powerful diagnostic tools for a manager’s professional development and for upgrading management practices in general.
The question is how to establish credibility and trust in the process. Here are some tips based on our years of experience in successfully conducting 360s:

• DON’T link the reviews to performance evaluations and therefore dollars. You’ll damage the integrity of the process.
• Build the rationale entirely around professional development.
• Emphasize the need for the individual’s responsibility to work with the findings and the availability of resources to support these efforts.
• Use external consultants to assure reviewers and reviewees of independence and confidentiality.
• Communicate effectively. Tell the reviewees why you’re doing it, the process, the respect for anonymity and the opportunity to learn.
• Give sound guidelines to the reviewers, indicating the need for objective and constructive feedback.
• Ensure the review instrument is designed to address management style issues specifically relevant to your organization and culture.
• Address the major issue of who gets the results. In some organizations, it’s only the reviewee. In others, higher levels of management and HR also get the results. (PSG takes a middle course. We believe there is mutual accountability and recommend the reviewee’s manager receives a one-page summary of results by competency category with relevant themes and is accountable for managing the direct report/reviewee through his or her professional development needs.)
• Make sure feedback is prompt and preferably given through an independent coach, typically from the consultants conducting the 360s.
• Ensure the reviewee provides the manager with a summary of plans to address issues raised for discussion about the “how.”
• Ensure you get a consolidated report by line item to identify training needs of your organization.
• Ensure that 360s are conducted for coaching assignments. The perceptions of the coachee are precisely the wrong way to go! The whole point is what others think!
  

Follow these tips and with our help, if you need it, you’ll be well on the way to a successful 360o review process.

Positive Feedback – Managers Forget!

Why do managers forget to give the positive feedback that motivates their direct reports and gives the necessary encouragement to stay motivated? They’re busy, pre-occupied, but mostly, they just take things for granted — it’s part of the job; it’s expected. However, people like to know where they stand, like to know that when they make the effort or think of something creative, it is appreciated.

Here are some questions to think about, which may help managers recognize when and how to respond:

• When someone does something special or beyond the call of duty, is there a special thank you or something special like dinner-for-two or tickets to a ballgame or even a weekend away?
• When someone works night and day to get a report done or an assignment completed, do you simply nod and ask him to leave it on your desk?
• When you’ve coached someone on a particular behavior or talk, and she does it right or almost gets it right, do you reinforce the behavior with words of encouragement?
• Do you wait until the end of the project to tell someone that he’s done it well or do you provide ongoing positive feedback to keep him motivated?
• When someone simply does what she’s meant to do, do you say anything?
• Or when you praise someone for something done well, do you also pick on some minor issue that really doesn’t matter?
  
  And a few reminders:

• Even a small “thank you” goes a long way.
• When giving praise, make it specific and make it related to the impact of a specific action or behavior and not a throwaway generalization.
• Keep praise in proportion to the action or behavior. Don’t give phony praise. Your sincerity becomes dubious.
• Don’t overdo the praise for an individual in front of team members.
• And, finally, give praise throughout the year. Don’t wait for the annual performance review!
  
  

Emotional Intelligence: Why it’s become so relevant

In recognizing the significance of emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman’s pioneering work, Working with Emotional Intelligence, has spawned an industry of consultants and coaches. This is appropriate! Research has shown that productivity and performance increase dramatically in control groups where managers or front line supervisors are trained in emotional intelligence skills.

Perhaps the most compelling aspect is that the skills and behaviors required to demonstrate EI are not rocket science. They are pragmatic, common-sense concepts that are easily understood and easy to implement. In fact, Goleman emphasizes that these behaviors require practice and continue to improve as they become an integral part of the way people manage relationships both in the workplace and in their personal lives.

The essential EI skills are as follows: self-awareness, empathy, self-regulation, social skills and social awareness. Recognizing the impact of one’s emotions, moods and actions on others, thinking first to avoid one’s natural (and often justifiable) response, and the ability to empathize by putting oneself in another’s shoes are the essence of emotional intelligence.

The applications for these skills are numerous. Managers coaching their direct reports or confronting poor performance have ample opportunity for constructive use of EI. Team members work more effectively together when utilizing EI skills. Call center representatives or receivables collection clerks are significantly more effective when demonstrating higher levels of EI. And, as Goleman, points out, great leaders exhibit high levels of emotional intelligence.

If your leaders are unaware of the need for EI, you will make a valuable contribution by bringing it to their attention.

PSG recently conducted a training program at a Supervisors Conference in Cromwell, CT, held by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA). After attending the program, Dilza Hawkins of Laticrete International commented: “Thank you for a wonderful seminar. The examples and topics clearly illustrate real and everyday situations that so often have negative outcomes simply through lack of EI.”

Questions about Performance Metrics

Companies are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the performance management process with annual merit increases and incentive payouts linked more closely through formula-driven systems. This has been accompanied by a shift towards “metrics” (simply another word for measures). The old adage, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” has gained increasing credibility.

We’ve listed some key questions that ought to be addressed when using metrics to evaluate performance:

• Do you use metrics for evaluating performance?
• Are employees accountable for delivering on specific targets?
• Do you pro-rate outcomes (% of plan) where the resulting percentage is meaningful (e.g., sales, production volume or, with not-for-profits, number of grants/sponsorships)?
• Do you have metrics that require qualitative evaluation (e.g., customer perception/satisfaction scores, budget performance)?
• Do you need metrics for your incentive plan?
• Do your metrics include productivity measures (e.g., sales per sales rep, GM% by product line)
• What do the metrics mean? Lots of activity measures with no productivity and no deliverables (e.g., number of invoices processed, number of sales calls made)?
• When are activity measures relevant?
• Have you gone overboard on metrics? (You have too many of them!)
  

We invite you to log on to our survey of performance management practices. After you complete the survey, we’ll share the results with you so that you can benchmark your practices against other companies. The URL is: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB227XZ6AQKCC

Remember:

• Qualitative performance objectives require criteria to answer the question: What does it mean to achieve this objective?
• Performance objectives are the “what.” Each performance objective requires an action plan to answer the question “How will you achieve this objective?”
  

If you need answers to any of the questions listed above, please don’t hesitate to call us.

DISC — Better screening and coaching for lower turnover

At an operational level, a number of issues contribute to high turnover: the culture and environment, onboarding practices, pay practices, lack of clearly defined performance objectives, weak management and so on. But it all starts with the hiring process.

There are multiple components to successful recruiting, with one of the most critical being the use of testing during the screening process. Why do we need testing? Because candidates learn how to interview! As interviewers, we get caught up in the chemistry of the interview and frequently don’t ask the probing questions or drill down into potential areas of weakness because we’re enjoying the interview. We also have no way of truly knowing the behavioral characteristics of candidates and whether they are the right fit for the job.

One of the most effective tests available today is the DISC analysis, representing the characteristics of Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. The online test takes a brief 10 to 12 minutes, has a 92% validity factor and provides an extraordinarily comprehensive array of behavioral characteristics and indicators. The importance? As an interviewer, you’re able to explore areas of concern. More importantly, you are able to determine whether a candidate has those characteristics that best fit the position requirements.

If you’re hiring an internal auditor, you don’t want someone who is low on the C scale (compliance) and doesn’t choose to follow the rules. You want a high C – an individual who is meticulous, detail driven and follows the rules. If you’re hiring a salesperson, you don’t want a low I (Influence) and not very social or a high S (steadiness) who is totally laid back with no sense of urgency!

You can also sharpen your approach by actually running DISC profiles on the most successful performers in a particular position. Look for common characteristics and then use these benchmarks as a guide.

Bear in mind that a behavioral test is only an indicator and a supplement to other comprehensive screening procedures, such as case studies, team interviews, presentations or mini projects. An ideal candidate profile is the essential scorecard — not gut feel, but a systematic process of evaluating all the desired candidate requirements. Ultimately, it may come down to chemistry and judgment, but we all need to do the homework.

DISC also can be used in coaching. In PSG coaching assignments, DISC analysis is one of our essential diagnostic tools, typically used in conjunction with the 360o review. The concept is simple: if one wants to change behaviors, one needs to understand behaviors. We have found DISC to be extremely effective and a powerful starting point in developing sound communication with the coachee.

In addition to the standard DISC analysis, we also offer clients the Sales Skills Index (SSI) that was developed from a series of questions on professional selling skills, including prospecting, qualifying, demonstration, influence and closing.

Here’s some feedback from two PSG clients who have benefited from DISC analysis:
“We use DISC for screening our candidate short list in every search we conduct for clients. We truly get a sense of the real person and the suitability of the match.”
— Dan Denehy, President, Granite Consulting

““We learned our lesson the hard way. We conducted a DISC analysis after we hired a senior manager someone to fill a key position. The DISC analysis that PSG conducted highlighted several s behaviors that clearly indicated that he was a poor fit for the job. He only lasted 6 months and was a set-back to this key area. Since then, we always use DISC before making
— Maritza Milanes, VP HR, SS White Burrs