Last Friday on this blog we talked about activities that can help a leader become more self-aware. This week, we're going to take it one step farther and talk about what to do with this newfound knowledge.
Typically, we think about the career development process as having four steps:
Self-Awareness
Goal Setting
Action Planning
Implementation
Since we've already addressed step #1, let's break down each of the subsequent steps in more detail.
Nobody is perfect…that's easy for pretty much everyone to admit. So, why do some leaders act as if they have no faults? Some may be trying to protect their reputations - they might think that admitting mistakes or weaknesses will result in a loss of respect. Others may simply lack self-awareness. How can someone admit a fault if they don't even know about it? Working with someone like this can be very frustrating, especially if that person happens to be your supervisor. Having a strong sense of self-awareness is good for employees at all levels of the organizational chart, but it's even more crucial for leaders. The tips below can be useful for someone looking to increase their sense of self-awareness.
Identifying, hiring, and developing successful leaders is a daunting task for many organizations, especially when attempting to implement a succession plan. Change is inevitable and having a strong pipeline of high potentials (Hi-Po) is essential to staying competitive.
If you’re new to the field of selection, you might be wondering why assessing for personality is a common tool used in the hiring process. While most selection systems will also include other steps in their process as well, assessing personality is almost always recommended at some stage of your process. Here are the main reasons why.
We could all use a competitive advantage with succession planning and organizational development - and knowing what qualities to look for in future leaders is key. High potential individuals usually advance at a faster pace than their peers and are part of the company’s future leadership pool. They are often given high exposure positions, are assigned projects with upper management, and get extra developmental opportunities. But how can we tell that we are identifying the right individuals as “High Potential"?
Recently, I was talking with a friend who was in the middle of applying for a position at a new organization. He mentioned that the latest stage of the application was an IQ test. I am always curious about employee assessment processes for organizations, so I probed a bit more and asked him what it consisted of. “Oh, you know,” he replied, “it asked me things like if I like working with other people, and if I lose my temper easily.”
The relationships between employee assessment scores and critical outcome variables, such as job performance and turnover, are not always clear cut. It is important to understand that such relationships do not always follow the linear pattern that most assessment vendors assume. There are certain situations in which we are more or less likely to see that linear trend.
For example, as the economy continues to improve, we are seeing turnover rates on the rise. The reason being, there are more alternative employment options available to employees and they are often easily accessible via the internet. Employees literally have these alternatives at their fingertips. Under such conditions, we cannot make broad claims that hiring individuals based on top assessment scores will always lead to reductions in turnover.
Improving safety and employee performance should be high on the to-do list for almost every company in America and with good reason. Unfortunately, it’s much easier said than done. Companies struggle every day to improve in both of these areas. Even industry giants like DuPont have safety issues – they were recently cited by OSHA for a number of safety violations. If you run a company, large or small, and want to improve safety and employee performance, where do you start?
A leading manufacturer recently decided to make improving the quality of its workforce and reducing safety incidents a major initiative. Not that this company had any major safety incidents, but they always strive to improve. Management decided to tackle this situation from all angles, and they started with the hiring process.
Ponder this question - if you had to sit in a chair for 5 minutes, would you rather sit there quietly with nothing to do (no television, smartphone, music, or reading or writing materials) or solve some puzzles to pass the time? If you were paid for your time, do you think you should get paid more for solving puzzles than just sitting there?
One of the things that HR professionals, I/O Psychologists and organizations as whole struggle with on a daily basis is changing our behaviors or the behaviors of our employees. For instance, these could be performance-related behaviors, safety-related behaviors or any other behaviors observed in the workplace. Organizations should really focus on two kinds of factors to change their employees’ behavior, whether that be with a reward structure of their choosing or the way that they’re providing feedback to employees.
Employees are going to inevitably repeat behaviors for which they are rewarded. For example, if an employee is rewarded for their productivity, he or she is going to focus on productive behaviors and, as a result, this will help to drive productivity. If an employee is rewarded on safety, he or she is going to focus on those safety behaviors – after all, that’s where the rewards come from – and you’ll observe employees repeating behaviors that are more safety-oriented and promote safety in the workplace. It’s important for organizations to find that balance between their organizational goals and their reward structure and try to promote the behaviors that will reward their employees and allow them to achieve those organizational goals in the end.
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