View from the Lighthouse - Coastwise Consulting

Issue 12
HOW TO IMPROVE THE HIT RATE FOR WELL-MATCHED LEADERS AND IMPROVE TEAM AND ORGANIZATION EFFECTIVENESS

Welcome to VIEW FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE, the newsletter and information resource sent to you by quarterly by CoastWise Consulting, Inc. as a service to clients, colleagues, and others interested in its topics.

This issue of View From The Lighthouse focuses on research findings that identify important attributes and abilities that contribute significantly to leadership, team, and organization effectiveness, and the assessment tools that can improve and accelerate your ability to match prospective employees on these critical (but often overlooked) factors.

Every issue also points you to relevant web sites and/or additional resources on the topic. Our aim is to provide relevant information in a concise format that will generate thought without draining your time.

The CoastWise Lighthouse is designed to be help you stay on course and avoid the rocky shoals that can be a part of organizational change and development. In each issue we focus either on a business book of special interest to our readers or on a topic relevant to the CoastWise Consulting mission,

Recently, the San Jose Mercury News reported that in October, 337,000 jobs were added in the US, the best performance since the bottom fell out in 2001, and the largest number since last March when 308,000 jobs were created. The chief economist at Wells Fargo described this as a "blowout number." In September, the same paper reported that the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group expects that in 2005, 30,000 jobs will be added in this region.

These stories, as well as anecdotal data from local recruiters, reminded me that after a long, four-year hiatus, companies are in the early stages of resurrecting their hiring infrastructures. While employment market conditions are certainly different than they were during the growth years-most notably it's a "hirers' market" supported by great pent-up demand among many who are eager to change jobs and employers-some of the same hiring challenges remain as when there was a shortage of qualified candidates.

GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE "ON THE BUS"

One of the most surprising findings of the rigorously researched study documented in Good to Great (Collins, 2001) detailed the importance of hiring the right people: ".First get the right people on the bus.before you figure out where to drive it (p. 44)." And then be prepared to exercise an extraordinarily high level of rigor with respect to all your people decisions, including hiring. "Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people (p. 54, emphasis added)."

Although Good to Great focuses on mature companies, the situation is essentially the same in start ups. The four most important things to their future success and viability are: innovation and development of the product itself, securing funding, market development, and selection and development of the executive and the product development teams. Ram Shriram, a Silicon Valley angel investor who has worked for amazon.com and Netscape and was one of Google's earliest investor-advisors, has compiled his experiences into a volume called Ram's Book of Mistakes (which you won't find on amazon.com). In a recent interview (San Jose Mercury News, 10/30/04, pp. 1-2C), he shared these words of wisdom on the importance of hiring the right people: First, "It's the people, stupid., of all the bad decisions he's made, bad hiring decisions are the most fatal." When advising the founders of Google, he worked to make sure that they hired only the very best people who would in turn also hire the best. And what are Ram's criteria for "the best?" Well, "grooming is part of it.`I try to find out who their mothers are,' his theory being that `if they are raised well, they're more likely to make good citizens, employees and entrepreneurs.'"

HOW WILL YOU KNOW THEM WHEN YOU SEE THEM?

Regardless of employment market dynamics, or company size, or stage of the organization's development, the same overriding issues remain:

how to state job requirements and qualifications that accurately and completely describe all of what's needed for individual and organization success
how to determine who is, in fact, the best candidate for a given position, i.e. how will you know how well he or she
1. matches the profile for the job
2. fits with the culture of the organization, and
3. will interact successfully and collaboratively with colleagues, employees, and other stakeholders
in each of the (above) categories, the specific criteria by which "best" will be defined
how they'll be assessed

Setting aside for now the question of whether "grooming" is a BFOQ (bona fide occupational qualification), Ram raises an important consideration, that enhanced performance and effectiveness are also a function of attributes and abilities that are not just technical, that are, in fact, from the "softer side."

All too often, the job profile as well as assessment processes are focused primarily on the technical and/or professional requirements. Admittedly, it's much easier (and possibly more comfortable) to state, screen for, and recognize these skills and qualities, especially if you, yourself, are in a technical discipline. But problems in organizations are overwhelmingly the result not of technical issues, but of human factors-especially the inability of people to work together effectively to solve the technical challenges.

NEW RESEARCH FINDINGS ON LEADER, TEAM, AND ORGANIZATION EFFECTIVENESS

Two independent research studies in interrelated areas offer important new insights into what makes leaders, teams, and organizations effective. In all the studies, individual technical expertise and solid functional and/or managerial experience turn out to be "necessary but not sufficient," i.e. they are the price of admission. The attributes and abilities that differentiate the really successful, highly effective individuals and groups are things that have been learned over the course of one's life and are hard to change or to acquire in formal learning settings or later in life.

Understanding how these factors are important to the your company's success, incorporating the related attributes as success factors in the position profile, and accurately assessing them in candidates during the selection process are all essential to leveraging their contribution.

THE FACTORS AND HOW THEY'RE IMPORTANT

Compatibility of Values: In addition to being accomplished technically and intellectually, the people to whom you entrust the success of your enterprise must also be compatible in other ways. Research shows that people who share similar values-basic beliefs about what's important and which are the source of motivation and behavior-are more effective at problem solving and collaboration (Bristol, 2002). Specific value sets correspond to the various Customer Relationship Orientations (CRO), a reflection of a company's product/service offerings and business strategy and the relationships that are required to create and sustain customer value.

Compatibility is required in three dimensions: an individual's values must be compatible with those of others with whom he/she works; they must be compatible with those of the company; and they must be compatible with the strategic CRO. Company values are the fundamental ingredient of corporate culture.

The direct and indirect costs of incompatibility are high:

A CRO that does not match product offerings to customers' needs and expectations and the value formula is a fundamental strategic disconnect
Employees whose values are inconsistent with the strategic CRO will struggle or be unable to execute it, thereby creating disconnects with customers and co-workers
Content conflicts are often values differences in disguise, so the conflicts never quite get resolved, and scarce resources are consumed unproductively
People who experience themselves as being at odds with the prevailing values (espoused or practiced), fail to derive meaning from their work, and are continuously engaged in conflict (internal or external) eventually leave, OR
They become detached and disheartened, leading to a decline in productivity-both individual and team
The financial cost of turnover is generally three times the salary of the position-more for very high level jobs

Emotional Intelligence: Research by Daniel Goleman (1998), who popularized and operationalized the concept of Emotional Intelligence, found "that the most effective leaders are alike in one critical way: they all have a high degree of.emotional intelligence.. (It) is the sine qua non of leadership." In his study, close to 90% of the difference between "star performing" and average senior leaders was due to"emotional intelligence factors rather than cognitive abilities (p.94)." There are five components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill.

TOOLS TO SIMPLIFY AND ACCELERATE THE ASSESSMENT AND SELECTION PROCESSES

Finding the right people who embody the full range of attributes that make them a good match and bringing them on board are critical and challenging tasks, but often these important activities don't get the attention they warrant. Frequently founders, senior staff, and/or executives are too busy or focused on other aspects of the business to devote the time and attention that's required to do all that's necessary to get the right people on the bus, and sometimes they aren't aware of the significant benefits that can be realized. Sometimes they're not sure how to incorporate these elements into their culture and processes and don't have the internal expertise or resources to advise and assist them.

CoastWise Consulting offers a suite of tools and complementary services that enable you to leverage the benefits of these powerful findings. These tools, individually or together, provide you with the means to select and develop the best-matched people; ensure values and cultural alignment; and enhance problem solving, collaboration, and effectiveness in your company.

Here's an overview of the tools:

The Life Journey MapT is an individual values assessment and profiling tool that provides the means to identify and explore those values and behaviors that one experiences as meaningful in several dimensions. From individual profiles or composites of profiles:

The values of an individual can be compared to those of other individuals or the group as a whole
A group composite can be constructed
Success in group problem solving and collaboration can be predicted
Opportunities for intervention and change in areas that may be contributing to reduced effectiveness can be identified and addressed
The differences in national values and cultures that may affect your organization can be identified

And by creating a composite of key employees' values, interviewing key stakeholders, and analyzing documents the values of the organization can be profiled and used as the benchmark.

The Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) is a 360º tool that assesses the 20 competencies of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence accounts to a highly significant extent for the performance differences between high performing and average leaders. With this instrument:

Individuals are assessed on and receive feedback about their scores on the 20 factors
An assessment of the overall level of competence vs. what's required for the organization's success can be made
Individual development plans can be created to address areas of opportunity
A Workforce Audit for a group can be created from the profiles of individuals

These tools can be used separately or in conjunction with each other. Each instrument is:

Valid and reliable
Research-based
Administered on-line
Supported with carefully planned feedback meetings and/or coaching sessions
Available only from trained, certified consultants

THE OPPORTUNITY TO REFOCUS AND INVIGORATE YOUR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP ORIENTATION, EMPLOYMENT AND ASSESSMENT PROCESSES

The good news is that the pace of hiring is picking up after a long dry spell, and people are starting to come back in the door rather than exiting. The bad news is that the processes and tools you were using back then are probably out of date. There are more powerful ways of understanding leadership, team, and organization effectiveness and equally powerful ways to determine how well matched candidates-internal or external-are on those attributes and abilities. A fresh look will also enable you to examine and reassess the Customer Relationship Orientation that best matches your current business and strategy-that has no doubt changed as you've refocused during recent economic changes.

Lots to gain here, and nothing to lose by attending to these mission-critical processes and aligning them with your business as it is today.

Resources:
Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap.and Others Don't. New York: Harper Business.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam.

Goleman, D. (1998). What Makes A Leader? Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec 1998, 93-102.

Goleman, D, et.al. (2002). Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

www.ljmap.com This is the web site for Scott Bristol and the Life Journey Map. There are detailed explanations of the conceptual underpinnings of the LJ model and the methodology, construction, and uses of the model and map.
www.mercurynews.com This is the web site for the San Jose Mercury News, still a great source of information about things and trends technical, and should you wish to refer to the articles cited.