written by Neal Thornberry
Complex organizations are just that—hard to get your arms around in terms of structures, processes and relationships. Even good intentions can create their own unintended complexities.
The best thing senior management can do is to make the road to innovation clear. If managers haven’t built it, or worse yet haven’t communicated it, they need to do so. Continue reading
by Andy Molinsky
You want your employees to become more effective and emotionally intelligent communicators, savvier negotiators, more compassionate and effective deliverers of bad news, better coaches, and more sophisticated cross-cultural communicators. So you offer them interpersonal skills training. It’s a packaged solution that can pay great dividends for your business. Right?
Well, not so fast. Skills training is a huge industry, but also one with an equally huge failure rate. Companies spend billions of dollars annually helping their employees develop all sorts of interpersonal skills with questionable return on their investment. And the big question is, why? Why does training seem like such an obvious solution to a real problem when it doesn’t prove fruitful much of the time? Continue reading
By Stephanie Shaw
Onboarding, or organizational socialization, is a topic that can seem somewhat daunting for companies to embrace. Going beyond the simple employee orientation, onboarding ensures that new hires feel welcome and prepared, while giving them the confidence, trust and freedom to succeed in their new position. Most companies have some form of onboarding practice, but it is often regarded as tactical, rather than a strategic endeavor in the talent management process.
The Aberdeen Group, an organization that conducts business research, found in 2013 that companies are interested in re-evaluating their onboarding strategies. They found the top reasons for revamping onboarding practices were to improve new hire productivity (68 percent), engagement (67 percent) and retention (51 percent). Aberdeen also found that 90 percent of organizations believe that new employees make a decision on whether to stay at a company within the first year. This means employers need to make a great first impression and have a full year to make sure their top talent stays. Continue reading
by Peter Economy
Your top performers are the lifeblood of your company. Recent surveys suggest many of them are looking for new jobs. To hang on to them follow this essential action plan.
No matter how carefully you hire, inevitably your employees will differ in important ways. Some will be good-humored, intelligent, have a strong work ethic, and always be eager for new challenges. Others will be less so, or worse. You want to do everything you can to keep the first group, because they are critically important to the company’s success. Here are five things you should do to retain your top performers. Continue reading
by John Beeson
In most organizations, professionals who want to move up get lots of feedback. Did you hit your numbers? Make your budget? How did you perform in managing a major project? Many companies provide you with so-called 360-degree feedback based on anonymous surveys from your boss, peers, and direct reports. And there is also, of course, your annual performance review. In reality, for managers seeking promotion, such feedback is of only marginal benefit because its frame of reference is how you’re doing in your current job, at your current level. To maximize your career progress, you need answers to three questions that focus on upward mobility — the answers to which are elusive in the vast majority of organizations. Continue reading
