3 types of meetings — and how to do each one well

By Phil Albinus

If organizations ignore employee reskilling, they are making themselves vulnerable to their competition, analyst and HRE columnist Josh Bersin in a recent HRE webinar entitled, “Understanding Talent Intelligence: Why Traditional Concepts of Talent Management No Longer Work.”

The key to creating useful talent intelligence, as Bersin defines it, is the ability to gather “internal and external data into a useful tool that empowers planning and business growth.” In terms of employee skills, these tools can help HR leaders assess the skills that employees possess currently and will need in the future. HR leaders also need to know what skills are in demand in the outside job market to help with recruitment and employee retention efforts in a competitive job market.

“HR needs to create a company that allows people to transform themselves without waiting for them to tell you what they want to do,” Bersin said during the webinar, which was sponsored by Eightfold.ai.

It is often easier and less expensive for an organization to upskill a current employee than to hire a new employee with those skills, Bersin said. However, reskilling also is more than improving performance and making people happy with their jobs.

“It’s about your company surviving,” he said.

5 steps to building a new leadership identity

Posted on September 26, 2022

BY MARLENE CHISM

According to a “Global Generations” study by Ernst & Young, 46% of US managers have been managing for over 10 years, and most not received any type of training to develop their leadership identity. The belief is that because this individual was a star performer, has seniority, is a subject matter expert, a rainmaker, or a technician, they should be equipped to lead others. This tacit assumption leads to leadership dysfunction. The star performer micromanages instead of coaching others. The subject matter expert knows it all. The technical operator is overly aggressive, and the one who got promoted due to seniority still feels like “one of them.”

No matter what the context, newly promoted leaders often find themselves unprepared for what’s required of leadership: making difficult decisions, initiating difficult conversations about performance or behavior, coaching others, and holding the team accountable. At the root is leadership identity. Here are five steps to building a new leadership identity.

1. Uncover your narrative

How do you define yourself? Are you a “hard worker” or a smart worker? Do you define yourself as a hard worker, or just “one of them”? How do you behave under pressure? Do you have the courage to initiate difficult conversations, or are you more of an avoider? Increase your self-awareness to build identity-based habits. Notice what you think, say, and do. What would you have to tell yourself to behave as you do? Behavior is your narrative acted out. Behavior drives identity.

There’s one thing that makes employees want to return to the office, says a new Microsoft report

Posted on September 23, 2022

BY CHRIS MORRIS

In its new report on state of the hybrid workplace, Microsoft says successful companies are backing off of office mandates

The hybrid work world has been a reality for several months now, but whether it’s working well is really a matter of debate. A new report from Microsoft, entitled “Empowering your workforce in economic uncertainty,” checks in with both employers and employees and finds there’s a definite divide between management and worker perspectives.

The study gathered data from a survey of 20,000 people in 11 countries, as well as incorporated anonymized and aggregated data from LinkedIn and Microsoft 365. What it found was that, when it comes to perceptions on productivity these days, there’s a huge chasm.

Some 87% of employees say they’re productive at work these days, but 85% of leaders are less sure of that. The change to a hybrid work environment has made it challenging for managers to know with confidence that people are being productive.

“What I’m finding, quite frankly, is leaders have tools they’ve developed through their careers to measure how productive their employees are–and without a physical workspace, many of those tools are inaccessible,” Jared Spataro, CVP of Modern Work at Microsoft, tells Fast Company. “So, there is a question of, in this new era, how do we look at productivity? We need to pivot away from looking at activity and looking at outcomes. But this productivity paranoia is really about activity.”

The paranoia comes from two sets of people who have different challenges. Managers, Spataro notes, have not been given a hall pass when it comes to results. They’re still expected to hit higher earnings goals, etc., which creates stress. So, their expectations haven’t changed during the past couple of years.

New to management? Here are 3 principles to guide your success

Posted on September 20, 2022

BY LIA BOSCH

It’s not uncommon to experience impostor syndrome and a whole host of other emotions when taking on a new leadership role.

Although it was over 25 years ago, I clearly remember my first job managing the work of others. I was half the age of some on the team and had even less experience. I was thrilled for the opportunity but intimidated to say the least. At my first team meeting, I blabbed on about HR theories to prove my mettle. Impostor syndrome? You bet! Who was I to tell them what to do? What did they think of me? Did I really know what I was doing? My concerns matched what many new managers experience, but there are ways through it that can place you on the path to extraordinary.

Lack of experience coupled with personal insecurities can lead us to adopt behaviors that make matters worse. As Isaac Newton said, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Take one of my clients who had been recently promoted to manager. She struggled to get her team to follow new safety procedures. At meetings, team members nodded their heads in agreement but out in the field, there was little progress. She felt they weren’t taking the procedures or her seriously, and she didn’t know why. As we gathered feedback from team members, we discovered that she became controlling when she didn’t see the results expected.

She began to mistrust her team and managed to assert her authority. In response, team members listened less and mistrusted her more. Her behavior made them feel incompetent. Although they shared her concern for safety, they were rebelling against her approach. She turned this dynamic around after considerable personal reflection and by taking concerted actions to re-build trust with the team.