Interns are not coffee runners or file sorters. And as individuals who were thrown directly into a recession-hit job market, most of them are not simply looking to pass the time while beefing up their resume. They’re craving opportunity, a foot in the door and DEVELOPMENT.

 While grabbing coffee and stapling papers may seem to some employers like a valuable exchange for “experience on a resume,” interns (educated college grads with fresh and young mentalities) have much more to give.

Fortunately, more and more high-performance companies are starting to realize the long-term value of developing interns into full-time employees, according to a recent i4cp study.

“Nearly a third of survey respondents (28%) said that more than half of their interns convert, compared to 12% of lower performing organizations.”

 It makes good common sense doesn’t it? You develop a competent intern who is eager to learn about the business and prove his or herself, and in return you have a freshly seasoned employee who’s ready to climb higher up the talent ladder.

 Think of it as raising a well-behaved, eager to learn child and before you know it, you’re looking at an adult who meets all your expectations and then some. There in lies the reward of the investment.

 Perhaps the thought of developing interns overwhelms you. After all, pressure is higher than ever to focus on developing your employees and top talent. But here are some quick tips for reeling in a long-term investment from competent interns:

·         Meet with interns upon hiring to discuss their top three measurable goals for their time at your company. Approve goals that you believe are attainable and challenging, that will provide a win-win for both parties.

·         Consider assigning a trustworthy mentor to an intern. This is someone in the company your intern can turn to with questions, guidance or tips for the job. This also allows your employee a chance to develop their own leadership skills. They are not to be considered a babysitter, but a role model to an intern.

·         After a month on the job, have a brief meeting with your intern. Assess how far they’ve come in their goals and allow them to brainstorm ways to further contribute to the company. Ask them how they see themselves fitting into the company’s mission and goals.

 Read the i4cp study here: http://www.i4cp.com/productivity-blog/2010/06/23/high-performance-organizations-view-interns-as-long-term-investments

Imagine you’re sliding floaties onto the arms of your 2-year-old daughter, preparing her for the first swim with mommy or daddy. She’s had no swim lessons. So you let her know you’re going to put her in the water to learn.

“I want you to swim to that line, okay sweetie?”

You jump in and stand in the shallow end just a few feet away. Your daughter plops in the water. Instinctively, she begins to kick her legs to stay afloat. You have a smile on your face…. waiting for your child to swim her first few feet. She doesn’t get any closer… she’s just kicking.

After an hour’s time, you give up.

“Next time you have to swim to daddy,” you tell her on the drive home.

Sounds mean, heartless and downright senseless, doesn’t it? We would never send our own children into an unknown, challenging environment without coaching them through. So, why is it that we don’t recognize that sending employees into a challenging environment without any support along the way is like setting them up for failure?

“About half of the organizations out there don’t pay attention to managers’ coaching conversations for goal setting. I think it is safe to assume that efforts to promote coaching and feedback likely get similar levels of attention in these organizations,” says Chris Bergeron at Salary.com.

If you really care about the people you lead, you don’t throw them in the pool and let them sink, do you? If you can’t quite relate to the father-daughter swim experience, how about:

• Going to a class on the first day and then showing up at the final exam.
• Showing up for your first basketball practice. Then coach cancels practice and conditioning until the first game.
• Showing up for a personal training appointment, only to find a note waiting for you that reads: “Your weigh-in will be in five weeks, see you there.”

Your employees likely have competent skill sets, independent minds and motivation to contribute to the success of the business. They have the resources. But where’s the substance between goal setting and the review process?

Coaching is the most important variable in the performance process. Bergeron gives these tips to for moving “coaching” to the forefront of performance management:

• Coaching starts with senior executive sponsorship
• Create explicit expectations for the coaching conversation for all employees
• Finally, identify your best coaches and hold them up as examples to the rest of the organization

Read more at http://blog.salary.com/hr_voice_salarycom/2010/04/coaching-made-important.html?contactID=96334734&gwkey=H6MKLJ4DFI.

Who are my employees and how do their identities fit in with the company culture and brand?

In a recent “Management by Shared Mindset” article, authors Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich call upon leaders to be “meaning makers” as the economy crawls out of the recession.

“Leadership shifts from an individual to a team game, from one person as the great leader to a collection of great leaders, and from a leader who starts with personal self-esteem to a leader who instills self-esteem in others.”

As the recession deepened, leaders were called upon to respond quickly and decisively. They charged forward with boldness, confidence and authenticity– making whatever strategic moves they needed to make to keep their company afloat.

But as we come out of the recession, emotions are running high. Great leaders need to be wary of charging forward, making important and transformational decisions without thinking about how employees, customers and investors will see these choices. This unique, transitional time calls for a different type of leadership that helps individuals see that their work has meaning and value, and that they “belong”.

“Memories outlast recessions,” say Ulrich & Ulrich. “The economic recession may have led to an emotional recession at work. In this emotional recession, leaders need not only to make bold business decisions, they also need to be sensitive to the meanings that comes from how those decisions are made.”

Employees want to know “who am I” and how do I fit in…how do I make a difference?

Laura Schroeder at Compensation Café ties this idea into employee retention: “My suggestion is connection because people who feel personally and professionally connected to a company, to a manager, to a group of colleagues, or to a particular job, are more likely to give more of themselves and less likely to go elsewhere.“

The dollar benefit in giving employees meaning comes down to the ol’ productivity reaction.

“Employees with meaning will be more productive, and that productivity will enhance customer experiences and investor confidence,” Ulrich and Ulrich say.

We’d love to know about the leaders that have brought meaning to your work and formed you into the individual you are today. Who comes to mind?

Read the Ulrich’s article at: http://changethis.com/manifesto/71.05.SharedMindset/pdf/71.05.SharedMindset.pdf

Here we go again… the same old dilemma.

Sarah’s corporate presentations have lacked focus lately, but how can I tell her without coming on too strong?

Sure, I’m her supervisor. But we have a great relationship… is it worth confronting her and risking her trust in me?

Confronting her could change everything. … but something has to change about those presentations.

…. Then again, I am her supervisor – she should expect this kind of feedback from me right? After all, if it were me – I’d want the feedback.

——————————————————————————-

The fear of confrontation plagues all workplaces – at some point we are all afraid to confront someone with constructive feedback because … well… “What if they don’t like me anymore?” or “It’ll be awkward around that person for weeks.”

Respected business blogger, HR Capitalist, has one thing to say to that: “Man up. Or Woman Up. Give the Feedback.”

LTC agrees, but we don’t want you to have to do it alone.

First, it’s important to keep in mind your role and motive. Your role as a coach is to provide constructive and productive feedback. You are all on the same team and antagonism leads nowhere. Make sure to ask yourself: Are you motivated to help this individual to realize her/his personal and professional development goals? Are your intentions in the best interest of the team member?

And whether you like it or not, giving feedback is going to require you to fight past feelings of insecurity and hesitation. Gone are the days when managers can “wimp out” simply because a conversation might involve some uncomfortable moments. Authentic leaders genuinely care about the individual’s success.

Here are three different but simple suggestions for approaching feedback:

• Tell the employee you thought about avoiding the conversation but instead you thought it would be to their benefit to provide the assessment. Statements such as “If it were me, I’d want to know from someone who can provide an honest assessment” would be appropriate.
• Approach the employee with some positive feedback before launching into the constructive. This isn’t to “fluff them up” so they don’t feel blind-sided by the constructive comments, but rather to show that you have genuinely noticed what they are, in fact, doing well.
• Ask the employee’s permissions for you to give them feedback. The employee may be more likely to listen and respond in a better fashion. It also makes the supervisor more of a team member and less authoritative, allowing communication to flow more naturally.
  

When you can learn to approach and give feedback in an engaging, constructive and effective way, your employees see you as a leader that can be trusted. The current period of economic recovery offers an important opportunity to assess our coaching and feedback effectiveness, and make some changes. An authentic culture of accountability will be an important competitive advantage when economic recovery is complete. Stay tuned for future blogs on how to navigate through the feedback process itself, once you’re past the initial confrontation.

It’s the stuff great leaders are made of.

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

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 non-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.

Performance appraisals have taken another hit in the media recently.

• Get rid of performance reviews, author says (http://tiny.cc/rhc2r)
• Are performance reviews a waste of time? (http://tiny.cc/9z4la)
• Yes, Everyone Really Does Hate Performance Reviews (http://tiny.cc/sa77l)

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 performance, 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.

In the last couple months we’ve talked a lot about employee development and its importance in retaining your top talent. We’ve discussed what you should do to implement employee development into your company; now we want to make sure we help you avoid mistakes in your training initiatives.

The pending danger is that you invest thousands of dollars, time and effort into a training program that in the end doesn’t impact the bottom line or have any effect on your high performers.

So here are three common mistakes to avoid:

· Mistake #1: Developing a training program around what you think the trainees need to know.

o Your gut doesn’t provide the complete picture. Interview a representative sampling of folks in the target group and get the real story on what people want and need, and identify the delta or missing link

· Mistake #2: Launching an important training initiative without top management involvement and sponsorship.

o Top down then bottom up. Top management must approve and agree on the program up front. Have them attend sessions, endorse and communicate the importance of the sessions, and ask their management to hold trainees accountable for learning what is taught.

· Mistake #3: Insisting that training be delivered in full-day (or longer) sessions held off-sight.

o Research has taught us that skills training is best done in short bursts where people are introduced to one or two important concepts, and then given opportunity to put what they’ve learned into action. Use short sessions,and keep them at the office. Schedule the next session within a week, follow up the training, and keep adding more practice.

Lifelong learning is essential in today’s world. But don’t waste your money or time with an ineffective training and development program.

Yes that’s right… a rope.

Rope: “Bartender, get me a drink.”

Bartender: “Sorry buddy, we don’t serve ropes here.”

Discouraged, the rope slithered its way to the road. He sulked, not knowing what he could do next.

Passerby: “Hey buddy, you’re looking down. Can I help you.”

Rope: “Nah, that’s ok. Just a bad day.”

The passerby starts to walk away when the rope stops him.

“Actually, could you do me a favor? Would you mind fraying my ends a little bit?” the rope asks.

Passerby: “Uh… sure…if you say so.”  He slightly frays the ropes ends.

Another passerby: “Hey, you look a little sad. Can I help you out?”

Rope: “Actually, yes you could. Do you think you could tie me in a knot?”

Passerby: “Ok… if you say so.”

Rope crawls back into the bar. “Bartender, get me a drink,” he orders.

Bartender: “HEY! Aren’t you the same rope I threw out of here yesterday!?”

Rope: “Nope… I’m A-FRAYED-KNOT!”

And the moral of the story is (drum roll please)….Change is a good thing.

Ok, perhaps we were just trying to “rope” you in on that one…but in all seriousness, companies need to start looking at their willingness and ability to adapt.

We’ve entered a world where the word “tweet” is used in the 5 o’clock news, consumer behaviors wobble back and forth, and top performing employees are looking for the next best thing.

Where are you?

Are you with the almost 60 percent of high performance organizations adept at identifying and making the necessary incremental changes or are you with the measly 35 percent of low performers without a clue?

The difference between you and the rope? You can’t afford to waste time sulking on the ground.

“In today’s ‘constant whitewater’ environment, the ability to quickly move the raft is imperative,” said Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp, in a recent blog.

While 75 percent of respondents to the i4cp study reported their business environment is changing or rapidly changing, only 44 percent of companies reported being adept at identifying and making incremental changes, according to a recent i4cp study and blog (http://tiny.cc/cd1y6).

Are you going to join the high performing companies recognizing changed environments and making strategic moves to adapt?

Or will you sulk with the low performers who crumple when circumstances call for change?

Treena began to feel very weak. Parts of her body began to feel tired and achy. She had stopped receiving the stimulation and life source she needed to go on, losing the ability to make any company decisions or fulfill job duties.

She felt as if her system was about to shut down.

Just then she heard the words from her supervisor: “You’re being selected for a new training program based on your potential to lead.”

That’s all it took for her blood source to be revived and for Treena to find the motivation not only to keep going but also to finally make a difference.

————————————————————————————————————

One nonprofit is not only saving lives with their blood drives, they’re saving their top employees with their commitment to leadership development.

While the above vignette was a fictional look into an employee’s dissatisfaction with workplace stimulation, below is a quote from the real Treena Fartsi: an employee of Virginia Blood Services (as reported in a recent Workforce Management article: http://tiny.cc/nF7tR) after she was granted a shot at leadership development.

“It makes me want to work harder,” to become even more of an asset to the company,” Treena says.

Virginia Blood Services has hit the importance of leadership development right on the nail.

In the article, writer Garry Kranz writes: “Virginia Blood Services illustrates the physics of leadership development: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Virginia Blood Services committed several years ago to motivating its employees with professional development and teaching their technical gurus how to effectively manage others.

Program participants were chosen from various departments, including health services, recruitment and sales. The opportunity to grow professionally was a key enticement.

“That was what they were told: ‘You’re being selected for your potential to lead,’” (said Robert E. Carden, president and CEO of the 280-employee company).

At Virginia Blood Services, that reaction was a positive one: “It puts some amount of pressure on a person to be viewed as a potential leader, but I feel I have been given the resources to achieve it,” Debbie, an employee, says.

As nonprofit organizations face a leadership deficiency in coming years, Virginia Blood Services will not be part of that trend.

We would argue that nonprofit organizations are not the only companies in danger of facing a large leadership deficit, as companies across the board cut training programs and leadership development from their budget in the recent recession.

But as Kranz article demonstrates, their commitment to leadership development is posing Virginia Blood Services to have a healthy leadership pool in the long run.

Kranz writes: Carden says the leadership training accomplished a more enduring goal: getting individuals to take the initiative in shaping policies, making improvements to operations and pursuing any training they might need to fulfill their job duties.

Virginia Blood Services program consisted of six training classes with a focus on the organization’s values, mission and policies and determining areas of growth for each individual. We urge companies to take a lesson from Virginia Blood Services and start pumping blood through the veins of your top performers before it’s too late.

]]> http://ltcperformance.com/blog/2010/03/08/company-pumps-blood-through-employees-veins/feed/ http://ltcperformance.com/blog/2010/03/05/don%e2%80%99t-lose-your-queens-and-vonns/ http://ltcperformance.com/blog/2010/03/05/don%e2%80%99t-lose-your-queens-and-vonns/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:27:45 +0000 Terry Lauter Comp http://ltcperformance.com/blog/?p=517

“…Talented people will always have options, regardless of the economy.” –Mary Ann Downey

Did you get that? The war for talent is ever-present. Patriotism is no longer a good enough reason for your top talent to stay put.

Downey demonstrates this in her recent i4cp blog (http://tiny.cc/FqNK4) where she takes a look at Olympians who are not competing for their native countries.

• Pairs skater and Japan native, Yuko Kavaguti competes for Russia
• American ice dance siblings Chris and Cathy Reed competes for Japan
• Austrian skier Prince Hubertus competes for Mexico

Simply put, “talent cannot be confined by borders,” Downey writes.

Olympians look for the best place they can be challenged and grow. Same is true for high performers. They will not settle with traditional appeals but rather seek out a place where they can reach full potential and beyond, Downey essentially says.

You may have a Queen Yu-Na, Lindsey Vonn or Evan Lysacek in your company. That’s GREAT! But …don’t get too cocky. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: What are you doing to make sure you allow those stars to advance?

Our recommendations:

1. Identify your high performers
2. Help them assess their strengths and development needs.
3. Give them the tools to create an Individual Development Plan
4. Provide feedback and take the time to discuss corporate and personal development goals
5. Link compensation more directly to organizational and individual performance.

Click here http://tiny.cc/yCJOA for more on those recommendations.