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From the monthly archives:

May 2010

Terry Lauter Comp

Ditch “soft skills” for “core skills”

May 17, 2010 · 1 comment  by Terry Lauter Comp

in Business Basics Training, Business Strategies, Employee Communication, Organizational Growth, Performance Development, Training

It’s the stuff great leaders are made of.

Communication, Listening , Giving Feedback, Cooperation, Problem Solving, Delegating, Observing, Coaching, Encouraging, Managing Conflict.softskills

But too often these so-called “soft skills” are downplayed- both in the hiring process and in the design of training and development opportunities.

Whether the term “soft skills” was developed with good intentions or not, our minds lead us to think “soft skills” are unimportant, wishy-washy, lack a means of measurement, and can’t be taught nor developed.

It’s time we throw out this term of “soft skills” and replace it with a term that properly represents these skills that transform technical gurus into great leaders. How about “core skills” or “foundational skills”?

Time after time, we’ve seen that organizations staffed by employees with strong “core skills” are not only the most effective in their professional lives, but they generally thrive in their personal lives, as well.

These skills underlie the very foundation of how employees and executives interact with customers, clients, supervisors, and with each other. Craig may be the best application development manager you’ve ever seen, but when he’s promoted, how is he ever going to lead a team if he lacks conflict management skills? What if he can’t constructively receive feedback?

As Stephen Paskoff writes in a recent Workforce Management blog: “Any respected leader will tell you it’s the ‘soft skills’ that distinguish effective leaders from outstanding operational producers, or, at the management level, distrusted tyrants.”

Think about it – who are the leaders that you look up to right now or in your past? Who are the ones that balance their creative, intellectual or technical skills with their ability to bring people in, listen, motivate, read starnon-verbals or cooperate? Who are the ones that demonstrate exceptional human relations skills that perfectly complement the other abilities they bring to the table?

Let’s stop demeaning these types of skills as “soft” and instead, as leaders, let’s help our employees develop these foundational skills that can help them become the leaders they want to be.

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Terry Lauter Comp

Throw out performance reviews?

May 7, 2010 · 1 comment  by Terry Lauter Comp

in Benefits, Business Strategies, Employee Communication, Employee Surveys, Feedback, Leadership, Organizational Growth, Performance Appraisal, Performance Development, Performance Feedback

Performance appraisals have taken another hit in the media recently.appraisal

These articles argue that performance appraisals are: pretentious, fraudulent, ill-advised, intimidating, send the wrong message and so on.

So should we throw the baby out with the bathwater? Should the entire process be overthrown?

 

But wait! Some companies are actually enjoying a great deal of success with their appraisal programs. In fact, a recent American Management Association study of 437 publicly traded companies found that 205 of these had transitioned to more progressive types of performance “development” vs. the standard appraisal process. Those that had, demonstrated the following results:

  • Increased profits, better cash flows, stronger stock market graphperformance, and higher stock value
  • Significant gains in financial performance and productivity
  • Significant sales growth per employee
  • Lower real growth in numbers of employees

Here’s the key: Providing valid and valuable feedback on performance is a process, not an event. In fact, performance reviews are often despised and vilified not because they are done, but because of the way in which they are accomplished by managers.

 

 

Too often, the individuals are poorly trained and the system itself is both ineffective and inefficient. But open and honest feedback on how an individual is doing in their job is something that most individuals actually appreciate having.

 

Our recommendation would be to adopt a simple, practical tool for measuring performance objectively; and train managers thoroughly, not just on the appraisal system, but on the process of providing ongoing communication and feedback.

 

We also counsel our clients on teaching individual employees how to receive feedback. This type of preparation is very effective, but can only accomplish the ultimate goal when a genuine culture of trust exists in the work environment.

 

To read on about “Getting More From Your Appraisal Program” visit: http://www.ltcperformance.com/Getting-Appr-Program.html.

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