The Honeymoon’s Over

by Walter Sonyi, Jr.

If starting a new job makes you nervous, don’t relax-it should. How you manage your first
weeks in a new executive position can carve a path toward success or mark the beginning of
your inevitable demise.

“There is no honeymoon. Once you’re on board, you’re on display,” said Dory Hollander, founding partner of Wise Workplaces, an Arlington, Virginia-based executive coaching firm.

Just as you need a strategy for getting a new job, you should have a good strategy for starting one or your early missteps may come back to haunt you. Here are pointers from executive consultants and coaches for ensuring a smooth and successful transition into a new position:

Check your assumptions at the door.

Before you begin, remind yourself that you are entering a new corporate culture, which might be radically different from the one you left. For instance, you may have worked in an office that thrived on confrontation, but that kind of aggressive style may not be acceptable in your new job. Or perhaps the earnest, self-effacing approach that was effective in your past might be mistaken for a lack of resolve at your new company.

“You need to understand the nuances of the new culture and let go of the nuances of the culture you came from,” said Hollander. It’s more difficult than it sounds, as it could mean adapting ingrained work habits, especially if you spent several years in your previous position.

Get with the program.

You probably have a good sense of your job responsibilities. But do you understand how your job fits in with the overall mission and strategy of the company? If you don’t, sit down with your boss and find out how your results affect the bottom line.

A surprising number of executives work without that knowledge, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to prioritize effectively, said Caela Farren, president of Mastery Works, an Annandale, Virginia talent management firm. “I always ask them how they make decisions without knowing. How do they choose what to focus on?” Farren said. “Especially these days, when we’re trying to up performance and do more with less, it’s more and more important that people are really hooked in to what’s important to the organization.”

And don’t assume that those reporting to you understand how their jobs tie into the company’s mission. If you make sure they know, you will not only help them focus, but you will empower them. “Knowing the mission and strategies gives people a great sense of pride, meaning and commitment,” Farren said.

Identify your network of support.

Your first days on the job should be spent getting to know the people upon whom you will rely, as well as those who will rely upon you. In the first few months on the job, you should meet face-to-face with these people. If you manage people in different locations, start traveling. Find out how they work, what stumbling blocks they face, what they need to succeed. What do they expect of you? Build an organizational chart if there isn’t one, and create a plan for communicating regularly with the members of your team.

Devote extra time to establishing good relations with the administrative assistants of anyone whose ear you hope to have, including your own boss. Administrative assistants, who often have more power than assumed, are sometimes the confidantes not only of a top executive but a whole group of executives. If you are sarcastic or dismissive with them, they may give you a negative review when a higher-up asks them, “What do you think of the new guy?”

“Never think going into an organization that you are too big or too powerful or too important to pay attention to this very critical group of people,” said Hollander. “They may be the watchdogs of the culture.”

Listen and learn.

One of the best ways to start a new job is to be open about what you don’t know and to use your newness to ask questions. For many executives, displaying ignorance is difficult to do, but it’s essential. After all, you may know your field, but as a newcomer to a specific company, there’s no reason you should know everything about the way it operates.

Confront the legacies of your hire.

One of the stickiest challenges of starting a new job is dealing with the internal candidates who were passed over for the position you got. Ask your boss for the background, and then approach those people directly.

“Incite the dialogue rather than try to ignore it,” said Michael Shahnasarian, president and founder of Career Consultants of America, Inc. in Tampa, Florida. “You can’t go in there like a bull in a china shop. You have to be very knowledgeable of all these little dynamics that could undercut your effectiveness.”

Soon after starting in a new management position at a brokerage firm, one of Shahnasarian’s clients ran into difficulties with a subordinate who had been passed over for his job. The subordinate not only was angry; he had the sympathies of his co-workers. Shahnasarian counseled his client to befriend the man and look at ways to help him advance his career goals elsewhere in the organization. The client did, and ultimately, the subordinate was transferred to a different department, where he got the promotion he had wanted.

If you were hired at a particularly high salary for your company, you should be careful not to mention a fancy vacation, a new car or anything that will suggest you’re flaunting your hefty compensation.

Approach change carefully.

A common mistake of new executives is to make a change that is less rooted in strategy than in a desire to flex one’s muscles. Those changes often backfire, as they don’t take into consideration what is actually needed or how the employees will react to the message.

“Changing the wrong thing, or changing things too soon, is worse than not changing anything at all,” McKay said. “You need to know what the impact of the change is going to be. You have to know enough about the organization to know what change is going to be effective in bringing about the desired results.”

Limit your promises.

New executives often make too many promises about the things they are going to change. This tendency is often motivated by enthusiasm for the job or a desire to win over new colleagues, career counselors say. But you’ll do better to hold your tongue until you know not only what needs changing, but also the most effective way to achieve those changes.

Develop an exit plan.

It seems counterintuitive, but developing an exit plan before starting a new job-or even before accepting a new position-may be the best thing for your career, according to Hollander of Wise Workplaces.

Hollander counsels her clients to develop an exit plan that includes how long they will stay in the job, when they will leave and, most important, what they want to leave with. What skills do you want to acquire? What kind of contacts do you want to have? What kind of new knowledge?

“That’s a developmental plan that has teeth in it,” Hollander said. “If you just say, ‘I’ve got some goals’, those goals will be blown away the first month you’re there. They’ll evaporate because there will be so much on your plate. Your exit plan won’t evaporate because it has got dates and timelines of what you need to learn by what time. It compresses your developmental approach.”

Said Hollander, “You will be a better executive, a better entrepreneur, if you start with the exit in mind.”

After all, your overall goal is not simply to start a great job, but to build a stellar career.

 

Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann

Get Yourself Connected

by Walter Sonyi

There is nothing new about networking – haven’t we all heard that it isn’t what you know but who you know? The difference is that networking today has taken on a new magnitude of importance. It has been described as an “art”, a “way of life”, and some people even make claims for its spiritual value. It is something more than a business lunch and less than a political campaign, and it is a subject everyone seems to have an opinion on.

So what, exactly, is networking? Essentially, it is the modern term for making lots of business acquaintances, the understanding being that if you amass enough of these acquaintances, you will derive enormous opportunity for financial and personal gain. Of course, amassing them isn’t quite enough: you have to work them correctly. Here is where networking becomes a science, understood by a new breed of professionals with bulging databases who have the credentials to represent the industry of the truly connected. These gurus bring us such compelling concepts as “bootstrap”, “pigpen” and “power” networking. Despite the jargon, the prodigious literature on the subject does throw up several recurring themes, which you might do well to remember when prowling for that crucial contact or planning a major change in the course of your career.

Such events are all very well, but what if joining a networking group sounds like worse torture than a Britney Spears novel (yes, it does exist)? Can’t you survive perfectly happily going about your job with diligence and skill and leave networking to the extroverts and the name-droppers? Well yes, up to a point. But if you want your career to thrive, you really have no option but to continually extend your range of contacts, whether you like talking to strangers or not. The good news is that you don’t have to get to know anyone very well. You don’t have to reveal deep truths, or even to possess any. You have to know people, lots of people. You will be known by who you know.

Malcolm Gladwell, in a brilliant New Yorker article entitled Six Degrees of Lois Weinberg, describes the “power in relationships that are not close”. He recalls the 1974 classic Getting a Job by sociologist Mark Granovetter who reported that some 56% of professional and technical workers he interviewed in a Boston suburb had found their jobs through a personal connection. These opportunities mainly came about through what Granovetter calls “weak ties”.

“Granovetter argues that when it comes to finding out about new jobs – or for that matter, gaining new information, or looking for new ideas – weak ties tend to be more important than strong ties” writes Gladwell. Think about that. We generally reckon that the most important and influential people in our lives and careers are those we are closest to. But these people tend to have similar interests and move in similar circles to ourselves. The real power of networking lies in an ever-widening circle of acquaintances, improving the likelihood that, following the logic of the six degrees of separation, you too can associate yourself with anyone in the world. Granovetter calls this “the strength of weak ties”.

If, like me, you’re convinced that networking is a necessary, if somewhat painful, activity, which may just reap unknown benefits in the future, then it, helps to be familiar with some of the techniques employed by the experts.

John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends, offers some sound advice: “In the networking environment, rewards come by empowering others, not by climbing over them.” Herein lies the first rule of networking: the “givers gain philosophy” or as William Blake’s puts it, more elegantly: “Always give without remembering, always receive without forgetting.” If you set out to share what and who you know with other people, the chances are they will reciprocate, or at least remember your generosity when the time comes for you to call in a favor.

Just opening your mouth at an event full of strangers can require a lot of courage, especially if you are naturally shy, or feel you’re the last person anyone will want to talk to. However, BBC radio producer Carol Stone, in her recent book Networking: The Art of Making Friends, points out that “the sternest people melt when they think you could be interested in what they have to say”. If you have listening skills, then it shouldn’t be hard to show them off when you find yourself in a networking situation. And be prepared to make the first move. “Do you mind if I join you?” is seldom met with the answer “yes, I do”. Your own introduction then gives the other person the chance to launch into their story, and you’re away.

Most of the networking gurus repeat another golden rule: keep your promises. How often has a person said they’d do something that might make a real difference to you, then completely forgotten about it? We’re all guilty of it from time to time, and this is where good organization comes in. I know someone who is constantly interrupting conversation to write names and ideas in a tiny notebook – this gets irritating after a while, but at least he’s the kind of person who does what he says he’s going to do. Stone maintains a database of over 14,000 names, from which 1,000 get the coveted invitation to her Christmas party. When you operate at this level, there’s no option but to manage your network of contacts like a military operation. The rest of us should just be sure to write down who we’ve met, with any action points, as soon as we can after the event. Waiting until the alcohol has worn off is not a good idea.

Some people approach networking as they would hunting. They beguile their way into their prey’s company, stalk them until the perfect moment, and then pounce. I prefer a horticultural analogy: cultivate a wide variety of plants, and the chances are some will bloom or bear fruit when it matters.

So, when you next find yourself with the opportunity to network, don’t fall into the habit of speaking only to those you already know. You can open up exciting new worlds for yourself: all it takes is some effort, a positive attitude, good manners and a little organization behind the scenes. All of which are easier to cope with than the school reunion or a round of golf. Unless, of course, you like that sort of thing.
Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann

Get Your Leaders Moving On Your Strategy

Strategic Leadership Development (SLD) Creates the leaders you need to take your organization where it needs to go. SLD is a highly effective change process that addresses all the issues:

• SLD begins with your business objectives and enables you to identify the specific leadership practices needed to achieve them.
• SLD builds accountability into the development process in a uniquely powerful and comprehensive way.
• SLD is grounded in a technically superior, research-based model of effective leadership practices.
• SLD makes your leadership expectations clear and credible – and that is critical to creating the leadership culture you need to reach your business goals.
  

DEFINE LEADERSHIP REQUIREMENTS

In order to focus and align leadership development with the needs of the organization and its strategy, the first step is to define requirements.

 

“In the future, our leaders must…”

Using Strategic Directions, your designated team identifies the behaviors needed in the future to create a leadership culture aligned with your strategy. Because there is no “one right way” to lead for all organizations, Strategic Directions enables you to select the template of leadership practices that is right for your organization.

By establishing Strategic Directions, your entire organization gains clarity and consensus about leadership expectations. Moreover, Strategic Directions helps you assess learning and development initiatives to determine where to invest time and money.

Strategic Directions is the best starting point. It produces rapid, impressive results. It provides a road map for change and builds the commitment needed for long-term success.

Strategic Directions answers the question: To create a leadership culture aligned with our business strategy and direction, what leadership behaviors will be required?

 Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann

Getting The Most Out of Your Core Employees

It has been made absolutely clear to all of us that a successful talent management program is the number one demand faced by senior management.  This is not only true today, but good talent management will be more difficult in tomorrow’s workplace. The competitive pressures of globalization, outsourcing, the aging workforce, demographic shifts, generational differences and work/life balance issues will only become greater. 

We are spending more of our time and energy addressing this issue.  We develop succession planning systems for our high-potential employees to better identify and plan for their growth and development.  We are quicker to terminate or shuffle those employees who are not performing well to make room for our up-and-comers. Indeed, our high-potential and poor employees take up most of our effort in managing personnel.

High potential employees or “A” players demand and receive constant attention.  Their concerns about career growth and promotion, performance feedback, and their seemingly constant demand to be noticed is a time-consuming experience for bosses and HR.  Many bosses initially find mentoring A players to be satisfying, because most of them are top players themselves. Bosses see a lot of those attributes which made themselves successful in this group of employees. Given the pressure on their time, they often decide to focus their mentoring on the employees who will benefit them and the company the most. 

Because of legal ramifications, management and HR also have to devote a lot of effort and care to handling poor performing or “C” employees.  Behind the scenes performance discussions, making sure that solid documentation exists, conducting appropriate counseling sessions and the actual termination are draining. Moreover, filling any vacancy and the ramp up time that goes with it also take a considerable amount of energy and time.

Some studies estimate that bosses and HR can spend up to 75% of their time that is not devoted to administrative duties dealing with A and C employees.  Yet these two groups of employees usually make up only about 30% of the workforce with A’s consisting of about 20% and C’s 10%.  Employee problems seem to gravitate among these categories of employees.  In fact, how often have we seen new bosses get “rid of the bad managers/employees and replace them with the excellent ones” and consider their reorganization efforts all but done?

No wonder executives and HR personnel can’t give the third unit of employees the time and attention that is needed. Yet these “B” employees usually constitute about 70% of all company personnel.  Their development and mentoring often go wanting.  An occasional structured training or formalized course usually makes up their formal training. There is not enough transitional or cross training assignments to give B employees since companies have to run leaner because of global competition. The few ones that do exist go to the A players.  And bosses and HR do not have the time, energy or inclination to devote to mentoring these middle level employees. 

Yet we often forget that this middle group of employees brings several important advantages with them.  B employees are generally not as outwardly demanding of time and attention as are other personnel. These solid citizens differ from the A group in that they tend to pursue organizational goals over personal ones because they value stability both for themselves and for the company.  Because they are not promoted as quickly, they build up a greater degree of institutional knowledge which makes them more valuable in times of organizational transitions.  And because of this greater degree of stability, they are able to take a longer-term perspective to situations and problems. 
 
IT IS NOT AN OVERSTATEMENT TO SAY THAT B PLAYERS ARE THE HEART AND SOUL OF ANY ORGANIZATION.  IF THEY ARE MEDIOCRE, THE COMPANY WILL BE MEDIOCRE.  IF THEY ARE HIGH PERFORMERS, THE FIRM WILL BE ONE AS WELL. THE A GROUP WILL NEVER MAKE UP FOR THE MARGINAL PERFORMANCE OF A GROUP THAT CONSTITUTES 70% OF THE WORKFORCE.

Yet this core group often exhibits a greater patience with career advancement and development such that managers often overlook them.  Given the constant demands of the other two groups, administrative tasks and planning/strategic requirements, bosses and HR will always be hard pressed to provide the B group with the resources that are needed.  There often does not seem to be enough time, money, energy and opportunity to ensure their careful and systematic development into excellent performers.  This core group of employees will not be provided with the same level of job rotation, individualized coaching and customized structural training that high-potential employees receive.

Yet, turnover among this core group of employees is rising.  Companies are struggling to retain enough B level professionals to service existing clients, let alone acquire new ones.  B professionals, like those in the A group see themselves as free agents, and stay only until a better offer comes along.  One of the biggest reasons why the core employees leave is dissatisfaction with their development.  They do not believe that their company really cares enough about them to make appropriate investments, especially when they see what the high potential employees receive.

Constructive steps can be taken to minimize this problem.  A critical component is to offer core employees some meaningful level of one-on-one mentoring/coaching and customized training to meet their individualized developmental needs. It is important that these efforts are seen as being relevant to the employees’ current challenges and probable future work assignments.  The coaching and structured training has to be tailored to the uniqueness of the role that the B employee must play in the success of the company:  one that is critical even though none will likely be promoted to executive management. Mid-level skills and competencies must be stressed in a manner that does not come across as canned or off-the-shelf. 

Programs can be cost effectively designed and implemented with minimal development time spent by bosses and HR. Please contact Walter Sonyi at 800-376-8176, ext. 106 to examine the latest trends and tools that are available to help you and your organization accomplish this. 

 Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann

Falling Star or Rising Star?

Today’s economy can be hazardous for company “rising stars”. And you may be one of them – a valued and high-potential employee who has fallen off course or is heading there.

Mergers, acquisitions, downsizings and other upheavals that once took years to evolve now happen in months. These rapid changes are creating new rules in the workplace. Key employees are expected to quickly adapt to new cultures, altered priorities, different reporting systems, and new job descriptions and levels of accountability. High performers are expected to achieve the same level of performance as before.

Those who’ve been given additional responsibilities may find they lack some of the skills to handle the job effectively. And employees with outstanding skills wonder how their performance will be judged by the new regime. Confused by the changes and unsure of their status, they question their roles in the new order and their own capabilities. Some wait it out, hoping things will stabilize. Others start looking for new jobs. Some reveal it in behavioral changes. The organization suffers from inadequately performing employees and the individual suffers through a period of confusion.

What about the new stars? Welcomed with high expectations, they are expected to produce results immediately. But many run into trouble because they lack the internal support systems to facilitate these changes. It’s hard to demonstrate results if you’ve not had the time to understand the company’s culture and values, and learn who the chief stakeholders are, as well as their goals and deadlines.

A falling star situation can cause problems throughout the entire organization. It can affect worker morale, customer relations, productivity levels and efficiencies, and even profits. Losing and then finding and training talented people-a company’s most valuable asset–is time-consuming and costly. Without talent, growth is likely to suffer.

What can you do to make sure your career path is on course and that you won’t become a falling star? Consider the following:

Know your objectives. Request clearly defined job expectations that spell out the critical results for the organization and your responsibilities in meeting them. No matter how impressive your qualifications may be, you should know exactly what you are expected to accomplish. This will help you focus on the skills you have or must develop and issues that must be addressed.

Know the players. Identify the new bosses’ priorities and standards for measuring performance and success. Many stars assume that if they were doing a great job in the old order, there’s no reason to change. But the company’s objectives have changed. What was a No. 1 priority yesterday may no longer apply today. Expect shifting priorities and be prepared to accept and adapt to new challenges.

Help your staff work through all the changes in the organization. It may take time to help them adapt to the new reality, but it will be a reflection of your leadership.

Know the rules. Get to know the acceptable behaviors and management style of the new order. A knowledge of unwritten rules, from dress code to reporting preferences, can avoid later surprises or disappointments.

Know your competition. Identify colleagues who are “friendlies” and those who are competing for the promotion you want. This will help you focus on people who can further your career while avoiding those who might hinder you.

Subtly let new management know what you’ve done in the past. While past victories won’t necessarily signal success in the new job or with a new regime, it can’t hurt to let the top brass learn as much as possible about the capabilities of their key people. You may have a critical skill that the company needs.

Know what’s important. If you don’t get that expected promotion or are transferred to a new location, find out the reasons for the decision so it is not misinterpreted. As an example, a company nearly lost one of its top executives because no one asked how she felt when she didn’t get an expected promotion. Within six months, her performance plummeted and she was within days of being fired. It wasn’t until someone asked how she was doing that she conveyed her disappointment and erosion of self-esteem. She felt the missed promotion was a sign that the company had little confidence in her. In actuality, her abilities were never questioned and she was always considered a valued employee. The new person was a better fit for the job.

Be sensitive to possible negative reactions to your promotion or if you’re a new recruit. Others may not share your happiness. Who was passed over? How will colleagues feel about a friend not getting promoted? Is there resentment that someone was brought in from the outside? If so, your chances for success may have been compromised because support systems have been sabotaged.

Take risks. After a company upheaval most people keep a low profile. This might be your chance to take a creative risk and stand out. Take a close look at what can be done to improve a particular company process and share your ideas with the stakeholders. Avoid decision paralysis. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.

These are exciting times for American businesses with tremendous opportunities for growth. Now is the time for the stars to rise.

If you need help with a “Star”, please call;
Walter Sonyi, Jr.
1-800-376-8176
Walter.sonyi@gigincmail.com

 

Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann

Engagement

As outplacement has become more commonplace, many of our client organizations have become more selective about the on-site presence of an outplacement provider at the time of termination and that has resulted in the need to address the issue of engagement in a new light.

No longer does engagement with the individual take place on-site, immediately after the event, rather it must now take place outside the workplace, after the fact. How can you support the likelihood of engagement in the new scenario? Our experience has shown that there are several key steps that encourage and expedite smooth and timely engagement.

• First, is the availability and provision of clear, concise information regarding the services that are being provided.
• Second, the material should be separate from other transition documentation which should stand out and be attention getting.
• Third, the individual should be verbally encouraged to contact the provider to ask questions and schedule the start of their services. They should also be informed the provider will be contacting them to introduce themselves, answer questions and set up a mutually convenient initial appointment.

The importance of staging the engagement process cannot be overstated. In our experience, when we have the opportunity to talk with someone about our services, engagement is 90% or better. When we do not have the ability to make that initial contact, engagement drops dramatically, sometimes down to 50%.

The critical ingredient in this process is for the outplacement provider to have access to a home or cell phone number and this can be a sensitive arena. On occasion, companies with whom we work have taken the position that they would prefer to just give the individual the requisite information, encourage them to call, but not share their contact information with us. The stated reasons for this are:

• They want the individual to show genuine interest and initiative.
• They feel this is personal information and don’t want to violate a person’s right to privacy.
• They feel a call from the provider would be considered invasive during an emotional time.

While legitimate concerns, we feel that the positives of proactive contact and introduction outweigh these concerns. We find that many individuals simply do not understand what outplacement is, what services will be provided, and how the services can assist them in navigating the uncertainties they are facing. Emotionally they may not be ready or able to initiate contact with someone they don’t know, and hence may miss out on meaningful support and assistance when they need it most.

It is in the interest of the organization to make sure the individual understands what is being provided so they can, in fact, make an informed decision. This is not sharing personal information in an inappropriate way with an outside party; rather, it is providing necessary information to a service provider who is acting on behalf of the company and representing a service they want the individual to have.

The bottom line is that when you structure the engagement process following a termination, you have the opportunity to demonstrate the goodwill of the organization and genuine interest in seeing that everyone equal opportunity to access the support services being provided. That extension of goodwill will go a long way to help achieve the best outcome possible in a difficult situation.

Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann

Critical Talent

Following their recent nationwide survey of US based HR professionals; Deloitte Consulting concludes gloomily that as soon as 2008 US companies may well find themselves in the middle of a “perfect storm” that could threaten the global business economy. The crisis will, they predict, be provoked by a combination of factors ranging from the impending retirement of the baby boomer generation to a widening skills gap resulting from a decline in educational standards and a failure to manage and keep talent.

First off is the ageing factor. In three years time, the first wave of “baby boomers” will reach the age of 62, the average retirement age across North America, Europe and Asia. According to the survey, one-third of US companies expect to lose 11% or more of their workforce to retirement by 2008. The effect is expected to be especially acute in the healthcare, manufacturing, energy and public sectors. Over the next fifteen years, 80% of US workforce growth is expected to come from people aged fifty years or over. Nor is the crisis confined to the US: by 2050, it is predicted that 40% of Europe’s total population and 60% of its working age population will be people aged over sixty.

Then there is the skills gap. The US Department of Education recently suggested that 60% of new jobs created in the 21st century will require skills possessed by only 20% of the current workforce. More than 80% of US manufacturers already face a shortage of qualified machinists, craft workers and technicians. And according to NASA, North American colleges will graduate only just under 200,000 science and engineering students to replace the two million baby boomers scheduled to retire between 1998 and 2008. Whilst some 42% of undergraduates in China come out of university with degrees in science and engineering, only 5% of US students do so. Again, the problem is not restricted to North America: the number of German engineering graduates, for example, has declined by almost a third since 1995.

Many US children never even get as far as university. Only 32% of US high school students now leave with sufficient qualifications to attend university and only 70% of high school students who do go on to take degree courses actually graduate. Deloitte’s research is also critical of educational standards at US universities, concluding “in other areas of specialized education, such as information technology and nursing, schools simply can’t meet demand. Faculty shortages in computer science departments, for example, have reached crisis proportions.” A fact echoed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who predict that more than 300,000 of the 1.3 million new jobs in information technology in the US due to be created between 1996 and next year will remain unfilled.

So what exactly does Deloitte’s suggest employers should do to shelter from this predicted “perfect storm”? First and foremost they must manage critical talent, defined as those individuals and groups who drive a disproportionate share of the company’s business performance. This is not always “the A players or senior executives”, explains Mike Fucci, principal and US leader of Deloitte’s Human Capital practice. It is instead those who “possess highly developed skills and deep knowledge of not just the work itself, but of how to make things happen within a company”. Who might, for example, be the couriers in a delivery company or the researchers in a pharmaceutical firm.

Having identified critical talent, above all they must then make sure they keep it. Only half of the organizations surveyed by Deloitte Consulting had even identified a list of critical skills needed for future growth, let alone put talent management processes in place. Suggested strategies include finding out what matters most to the company’s critical talent – personal growth and development, for example, or the need to be deployed in positions that engage their interests and curiosities. But above all Deloitte urges organizations to become more “talent-savvy” if they don’t want to take a bath in that storm on the horizon.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING HOW WE HELPED DELOITTE SAVE OVER $60M IN TWO YEARS THROUGH TALENT MANAGEMENT, PLEASE CONTACT:

Walter Sonyi, Jr.
(800)-376-8176
walter.sonyi@gigincmail.com

 Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann

Career Smarts

They’re still lecturing. Still assigning enough readings to choke a mother hippo. And for what? Well, that’s simple: to arm their business students with as many tools and as much insight as they possibly can. But what if a professor could impart just one solitary nugget of information, a single gem that anyone can carry with them into the business world? What would it be? Here, 10 of the world’s top B-school professors impart their best chunk of portable, battle-tested wisdom.

Build personal leverage

“I tell my students to start saving their ‘go-to-hell-money’ the day they start working. That’s so one day, they’ll have a card to play. In many careers, there comes a time that to save your sanity or for ethical reasons or what-have-you, you may have to say to your employer, ‘we do it my way, or I walk.’ The leverage to do that comes from having something in the bank. No money, no leverage, and you find that you’re a hostage.”
-Denise M. Rousseau, professor of organizational behavior and public policy, co-director, Center for the Changing Employment Relationship, Carnegie Mellon; Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Organizational Behavior.
________________________________________
Put people first

“I try to emphasize to my students that the only thing which differentiates leaders from nonleaders is that leaders have followers. A leader cannot be effective except through his or her followers. The successful leader will care for those followers so that they don’t wind up following someone else. When there’s a problem, the good leader will think of people first, and then the ‘hard’ stuff, the nuts and bolts, the systems and processes, second.”

-Elizabeth Mellon, academic director, Duke Corporate Education, Duke University; formerly director of Senior Executive Programme and teaching fellow, London Business School ________________________________________
Look into others’ heads

“People make decisions, so understanding the psychology of the decision-makers is very important. When you read forecasts in a proposed deal, who wrote them? What incentives did they have in presenting the numbers they did? In writing financial contracts with entrepreneurs, what are terms you can use that play to the entrepreneur’s concerns, while maintaining value in the transaction?”

-R. Glenn Hubbard, professor of finance and economics, academic director of the Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School; chairman, Council of Economic Advisers, The White House
________________________________________
Bargain effectively

“Negotiation is an art form, but there are also skills that must be mastered. Among those:

1. Never walk into a negotiation cold. Do your homework. Know not only your own interests and strengths, but-perhaps even more importantly-those of the other party.

2. Open the negotiation aggressively. It’s the only chance you’ve got to state your desires. If you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it.

3. Close the negotiation softly. Make sure the other side thinks it got itself a great deal. You want the deal to close. You also want to leave the door open for the next.”

-Sherwood Frey, professor of business administration, The Darden School, University of Virginia; winner, Friend of the Students Award, 2000; Morton Leadership Award, 1998; Outstanding Faculty Award, 1995
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Know thy enemy

“The heart of what I teach in Competitive Strategy is that the value of any organizational decision is highly dependent on what the other players in the market are likely to do. The value of a faster chip created by Intel depends on investments made in the complementary software and hardware markets. The response of customers to American Airlines’ recent decision to expand room in the coach section clearly depends on whether or not other airlines match. We see here that the actions of other agents can either reinforce or attenuate the power of one’s original action. I hope my students take away from this class an ability to anticipate and to think analytically about competitors’ and other players’ possible responses.”

-Sharon Oster, professor of management and entrepreneurship, Yale School of Management; winner, Teaching Award in Excellence
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Give them a home

“Successful marketing-:in any business-often hinges on reducing a customer’s angst. That’s one reason that chains like McDonald’s can so well. The customer always knows what to expect; there are few if any surprises. When customers become travelers, separated from familiar surroundings, angst increases exponentially. That’s why hospitality marketing, my specialty, focuses so much on providing comfort. As I try to drive home to my students, if one is to succeed in the hospitality business, more so than any other business, it is absolutely necessary to recognize and identify the customer’s angst, and to do everything possible to alleviate it. Hotel companies such as Marriott and Starwood recognize this, and that is what has made them so successful.”

-Sandro Formica, assistant professor of marketing, Cornell School of Hotel Management-ESSEC Business School, Cergy-Pointoise, France
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 Keep your eye on the ball

“The single most important thing for any businessperson to remember is that you go nowhere unless you have customers willing to buy your products. End of story. But many can’t remember this simple truth. Just look at the entire dot-com fiasco. The big collapse came because everybody got so psyched up by the technology but forgot to ask, ‘Are we creating customer value?’ It’s fine to have a lively, colorful website that sells jewelry for dogs-but is that what people really want?”

-Dominique Hanssens, professor of marketing, Anderson School, UCLA; winner, Best Instructor Award
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Go with the gut

“I hope my students retain the theories and analyses that I teach, certainly, but I would also hope that they would never be bound by those analyses or enslaved by those theories. In the end, analysis can bring a businessperson 30 to 40 percent, at most 50 percent toward making a decision. The rest has to come from the gut. Good decisions are born of common sense and intuition.”

-Vijay Mahajan, professor of marketing, McCombs School, UT Austin; the American Marketing Association instituted in 2000 the Vijay Mahajan Award for Career Contributions to Marketing Strategy
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Fly high

“What I would like students to remember from my course Leading & Managing are the three fundamental rules that they must practice-without exception. First, leaders must demonstrate unquestioned integrity, or people will simply not be willing to follow them. Second, leaders must communicate high expectations and provide people with the confidence and resources necessary to meet these expectations. Third, leaders must promote learning. Without learning, it is impossible to continue to meet high expectations without sacrificing integrity.”

-James W. Dean, Jr., Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Scholar and associate dean, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina
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Be tough

“The key to long-term business success is resilience-that is, the ability at both the personal and the organizational level to adapt and to deal with adversity. Successful managers are those who can bounce back from failure, and those who can help create resilient organizational systems and resilient subordinates. When people feel threatened and anxious, they are fragile. Strong executives make people feel secure and by so doing create an organization that can bend without breaking.”

-Batia Wiesenfeld, assistant professor of management and organizational behavior, Stern School, New York University
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Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann

An Alarming Trend in the Outplacement Industry!

 

Bulletin to Our Friends and Clients:

Pricing that seems too good to be true, might be… understand the services you are getting.

In recent years the outplacement industry has matured and, as often happens, conglomerates from outside this industry have bought established firms to broaden their product portfolios. Because of shareholder demands, these mega-companies enter the outplacement industry with significant pressure to increase both market share and profit margins. It is obvious that they are lowering their prices in an attempt to increase market share. But what they are trying hard to disguise is that they have also decreased the services that they provide in order to maintain or increase profits. Although reducing prices may meet the need of the corporate clients who have tighter budgets, it comes at the expense of the individual who most needs the service!

Gateway International Group has always tried to meet the needs of both the corporations who pay our fees and individuals that we help. We understand the reality of tighter corporate budgets and are successful at being price sensitive and competitive. But we have accomplished this without compromising the services which we provide to the individuals going through our programs: a true win/win scenario.

What are most firms selling as STANDARD in the industry?

As we talk to our clients and individuals who are using the services of some of the these conglomerates, the following has become apparent as to what they are calling “Individual or One on One” outplacement:

• Career counseling with a counselor…….. means group sessions instead of personalized counseling with a counselor who works with you exclusively.
• One on one counseling…….. means “The Counselor of the Day”, someone who provides general advice but may not know the individual and likely changes frequently.
• Access to a counselor…….. means when a counselor has an opening on his or her schedule and individuals may get 30 minutes once every several weeks.
• Professional advice……. means someone to listen to you and offer their solutions whether or not they have experience in finding a job, changing careers, or starting a business.
• Access to our technology…….. means the individual gets a password to a web-site so they can teach themselves the job hunting process.
• An outplacement program…… means a standard process which everyone goes through regardless of an individual’s level or unique circumstances.

Gateway International Group has always believed that “One on One or Individual Outplacement” means exactly what it says: personalized coaching that is customized to each individual, their level and needs.

What should corporate Human Resources look for and demand in outplacement services?

Make sure when comparing firms, programs and pricing that you are comparing apples to apples and are getting your monies worth.

Specifically:

1. Ask if your people will receive only individual coaching or will it be done in groups.
2. Ask what is the counselor/candidate ratio.
3. Secure bio’s on the counselors to understand their background and experience.
4. When a candidate is having a hard time getting on track, ask the firm exactly how they respond.
5. Tell the firm that you will do periodic checks with the individuals going through outplacement to ensure that the services sold are being delivered.
6. Ask for a guarantee on the service. If the individual is not happy, a refund should be issued so that the person can go to another firm.

Gateway International Group believes that you should get what you have contracted for and to accept any less hurts the individual, your reputation and the outplacement industry as a whole!

 

If you have any questions regarding Outplacement services, please contact;

Walter Sonyi, Jr.
800-376-8176
walter.sonyi@gigincmail.com

Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann