The practice of creating bad management apples continues in organizations today. A bad management apple (not to be confused with a bad person) is an apple that does not have the skill, natural propensity, or drive to tackle the incredibly challenging job of a manager. It does not matter if the apple is a Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, or a McIntosh. At the heart of the issue is the fact that we promote apples when we should be promoting oranges. Or in talent management speak, we should be promoting high potentials (oranges), not high performers (apples).

It can be difficult to differentiate between the two because individuals who are high potential are almost always high performers. However, not all high performers are high potentials.

“A high-performing employee is a high performer without the potential to move into higher levels of management, but who can follow a career path with broader responsibilities and higher levels of contribution within a profession. In comparison, a high-potential employee is a high performer who has also been identified as having the potential, ability and aspiration for successive leadership positions within the company.”¹

Below are five key characteristics of high performers (apples) and high potentials (oranges) that you can use to differentiate between the two.

What Do High Performers Look Like (Apples)?

1. Is a key expert and contributes to the organization in significant and unique ways.
2. Would be very difficult to replace.
3. May be qualified for a broader role within the same organization or profession.
4. Lacks the desire and/or potential to move “upward’ in a management capacity.
5. May create new products or services for the organization.

What Do High Potentials Look Like (Oranges)?

1. Has the ability and willingness to advance or move laterally rapidly into significant and complex leadership roles.
2. Demonstrates high-learning agility, creativity, and strategic-thinking skills.
3. Is able to work in an ambiguous and rapidly changing environment.
4. Demonstrates superior interpersonal skills and is respected by others.
5. Is self-motivated and highly engaged in the organization.

A good apple is an essential part of a healthy diet, but it’s no substitute when what you crave and need is a citrusy orange. So be sure you recognize the benefits of both apples and oranges (in real life as well as in our management allegory), and pick your produce wisely. You’ll better manage expectations and achieve the results you want.

Bill Mugavin is a consultant at FlashPoint. He focuses his consulting on talent systems and processes, as well as leadership and management development.

Source

1. Kim Lamourex, High Potential Versus High Performance (Oakland: Bersin & Associates, 2008): 2–3.

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How much of your success is up to you—your choice, your actions, your behavior—versus outside conditions?

If you said anything less than 85 percent, then according to Linda Galindo, author of The 85% Solution: How Personal Accountability Guarantees Success, you most certainly blame your problems and failures (big or small, personal or professional) on other people, circumstances beyond your control, or just plain bad luck.

I recently cofacilitated a session called The Accountability Experience with my colleague, Andrea Moore. The session is based on Galindo’s book, and we asked participants the question posed above. We received a myriad of responses and had some good discussion as a result. We talked about the challenges of choosing accountability and owning your personal success and happiness.

It’s not all that easy, but you can take action and establish a mind-set that will lead to more accountable behaviors. Here are steps that will help you act on the fact that you—and you alone—determine your success, failures, and happiness.

1. Responsibility. This is not something you do but rather something you think. Start any project or task with the mindset that you are 100 percent responsible, that success or failure is up to you. Even if you’re working on a team, go into the project thinking and acting as if you are the one responsible for success.
2. Self-Empowerment. The “E” word has been thrown about for years, but the fact is, there is only one kind of empowerment: self-empowerment. When you are self-empowered, you take actions that help you and your team succeed. You don’t wait for someone to deem you “empowered.” You step forward (sometimes out of your comfort zone) to take the necessary actions—and potential risks—that can lead to results.
3. Personal Accountability. Unlike responsibility (the before) or self-empowerment (the during), personal accountability is the after. It’s answering for choices, actions, and behaviors. It’s not putting blame on someone else or some outside condition. It’s not making excuses. It’s taking the fall when your choices cause problems.

Accountability is a mind-set, but you can also make it a skill set by following this three-step process. If you’d like to learn more, join FlashPoint via webinar on May 9 for a free preview of The Accountability Experience. You can get more details here.

The Accountability Experience (which includes an assessment of each participant’s ability to self-manage and to sustain high performance) is eye-opening. Learning how to be wholly responsible for a result before you even take action (responsibility),taking actions and risks to get what you want (self-empowerment), and answering for the outcome of your choices (personal accountability) can have a huge impact on your results, relationships, and success.

Linda Dausend is a consultant at FlashPoint. She consults with clients on talent management, helping to align their human resources programs with organizational strategies.

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It is hard to imagine perfection as the enemy of innovation, but indeed it is often the other side of the innovation coin. As a recovering perfectionist—someone who gives equal detail-oriented effort to all things and thus gets fewer things done, misses deadlines, and may be critical of others who do not hew to the rules—I know how this trait can be a two-edged sword. Innovation, however, is more likely to appear on an organization’s list of core competencies than is perfectionism.

Today’s competitive marketplace demands both perfection and innovation; thus organizations as well as individuals are faced with providing new ideas, new strategies, and new services—and delivering them perfectly every time.

Today’s leaders must harness the positive qualities of perfectionism as they coach their perfectionist staffers. Since no organization will ever again have enough staff, we all must deliver more with less, so each staff member must consistently perform at a high level on a daily basis. High-level performance requires managers to help their staff perfectionists do five things:

1. Learn when “good enough” is as valuable as “perfect.” It is a hard lesson to learn that “best” may not be most effective in our deadline-laden work week. Spending too much time on minutiae or prettying up the data can derail not only our own productivity but the productivity of others who depend on us for timely reports or information.
2. Prioritize the work. In most jobs today it is impossible to get everything done. As a result, each employee needs to assess which tasks have the greatest value, will make the greatest impact, will result in repeat customers, etc. It is good to remind employees that 80 percent of their results come from 20 percent of their efforts.
3. Learn how to delegate. Remind the perfectionist that giving others new assignments is one of the best tools for developing others’ skills. Cross-training in specific tasks also prepares the department for vacations, illnesses, or staff departures. Once a perfectionist recognizes that getting everything done is not realistic, work with him or her to determine what to delegate and to whom.  Then coach him or her to allow the coworker some creative latitude in completing the assignment. Learning how to delegate is a skill unto itself!
4. Implement stress management techniques. Stress can become a vicious circle for perfectionists: the more deadlines they face, the more stressed they become, the less productive they are, the more the deadlines pile up, etc. Encourage perfectionists to stay cool in the face of deadlines: take a short break and walk around the building, consider refilling that cup with cold water over more coffee, do deep breathing exercises, take a power nap, listen to music, etc.
5. Work within time and budget constraints. Fear of being criticized for anything less than perfection motivates the perfectionist to “stay in the weeds” of one assignment even in the face of more projects that need to be completed. The perfectionist needs a new mantra: perfection is rarely realistic or expected. Good enough is often as valuable as perfect.

If you feel torn between opposing forces, you are paying attention! Leaders know that detail-orientation, high standards, and diligence are valuable competencies in the competition for quality, but they can be disruptive and cause stress if applied to all tasks equally, all day long. Leaders must learn how to move a perfectionist staff member to a more productive level that enables him or her to not only complete projects well but also innovate appropriately. Leaders must manage to the strengths of the perfectionist employee while coaching him or her to develop additional skills.

Nancy S. Ahlrichs is strategic account manager at FlashPoint where she interacts with human resource professionals, executives, and business owners in order to understand their organizational needs. She collaborates with our other team members to develop appropriate consulting solutions and supports prospects throughout the sales process.

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Ask a group of people to describe the attributes of an effective leader, and you’ll quickly hear responses around the importance of leading by example and modeling the way. Yes, leadership literature across time has acknowledged the importance of practicing what one preaches, but what separates great leaders from those who know what’s important is the tough work of critically exploring the examples that one is setting and the ways that one is modeling. This exploration is at the heart of leadership development and critical to clarifying your personal leadership philosophy.

For several years I worked with someone who naturally brought a lot of humor to his presentations; I watched his audiences react positively, as his wit drew them in and was very engaging. I wanted so badly to be funny and to create that same kind of experience for the audience, so I gave it a try … and you know (just as I now do) what happens when someone who is not naturally funny purposely tries to be; it’s not funny.

Anne Lamott (author of one of my all-time favorite books, Traveling Mercies) encourages would-be writers to find their own voice: “The truth of your experience can only come through in your own voice. If it is wrapped in someone else’s voice, readers are suspicious, as if you are dressed up in someone else’s clothes. You cannot write out of someone else’s big dark place; you can only write out of your own.”

In trying to be funny like my colleague, I was trying to wear his clothes—it worked for him, so I assumed it would work for me; but obviously it didn’t. As soon as I stopped trying to be something I wasn’t and instead leveraged my own strengths, life got a lot brighter (and a little funnier). I am naturally positive and empowering, so rather than trying to be funny during presentations, I rely on my natural strengths, and the good news is that I’m never going to have to try to be positive or empowering; those attributes go with me everywhere. Positivity and empowerment are the truth of my experience, and the audience feels it.

The important work of finding your voice is in the exploration. Think about those situations/interactions that feel effortless for you. The way in which you showed up in those moments points to your personal leadership philosophy; what qualities did you bring to the situation? Those qualities point you to the way that you were modeling in the moment, and you can bring those attributes with you everywhere!  Leadership is about connection and relationship. Trust and credibility are born from authenticity, so by knowing and modeling your way consistently, you put people at ease; when you bring your way into all of your interactions, others know what to expect and will appreciate having received the natural gifts that represent your voice.

Andrea Moore is a Senior Consulting Manager at FlashPoint. She focuses on leadership development, training and performance improvement solutions, and one-on-one coaching.

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Change is a constant in life. We all know it; we all live it. We are faced with various levels of change on a daily basis. The most significant factor in all change is how we choose to handle it.

Last November I was faced with significant change as my parent company opted to dissolve our subsidiary. I could have been angry. I could have waited for someone else to guide me. I knew I was the only person in control of my situation, and I immediately took the reins and began to iron out my next road to personal growth and success. I feel fortunate for the opportunities I unveiled, and elated that I am now a member of the FlashPoint team.

Speaking of change, what are you currently facing?  Whether you are facing personal or professional change, there is a formula that one of my colleagues shared with me that identifies when change occurs:

D x V x F > R

D stands for Dissatisfaction, V for the Vision of what is possible, and F for First steps that can be taken toward this vision. If the product of these three factors is greater than R, the Resistance, then change is possible. Think about this formula as you are considering the change in your life. Are you the recipient of this change, or are you the person implementing the change?  Consider the factors involved and identify if the change is possible. This formula could guide you as a determining factor in the next steps you should take.

While change is a constant in life, my hope is that you will embrace change for what it is. Consider the possibilities, look at all options, and find a meaningful solution. The path you choose may prove better than you could have imagined!

Kristi Gaynor is business development manager at FlashPoint. She directs FlashPoint’s clients toward outcomes-oriented systems and processes that drive accountability, execution, and results.

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When I worked for Macy’s back in the ’80s I was selected to be part of a roaming training team that went within the branch stores in southern California. Our group of six facilitated leadership development for store managers and their senior leadership team.

Now, anyone who has ever worked in retail knows how dependent the business is on customer traffic, and scheduling time away from the store is never easy, especially for senior leaders. Yet the training sessions that we delivered were scheduled for one week. That’s right . . . an entire week away from the store.

Today we would see that as a luxury. Expectations for training time commitments are very different now; it is the rare organization that has the time to send people away for days at a time, particularly senior leaders.

That’s not to say that organizations are cutting training. On the contrary, the 2013 Bersin by Deloitte Corporate Learning Factbook indicates that organizations increased training spending by 12 percent in 2012, the highest year-over-year change in the last six years. Expenditure per employee has increased as well, with high-impact learning and development organizations spending $867 per learner, 34 percent more than less “mature” companies*.

But how those training dollars are being used has changed considerably. Gone for the most part are the week-long instructor-led classroom training events. While some organizations do utilize these events for programs such as new-employee onboarding and M&A transition training, most have abandoned them because of high demands on leaders’ time and an increasingly broader scope of responsibilities.

In their place, FlashPoint finds that organizations are delivering smaller training events (two to four hours) spread out over longer periods of time. This approach reduces the amount of time participants spend in the classroom, and it provides an opportunity to incorporate more reinforcement activities and application exercises—including e-learning options, which are becoming increasingly popular.

We’re encouraged by this trend because it gives participants more time to practice the skills they learn, which translates into improved performance. Are you seeing this in your organization? Are you providing smaller chunks of training with more reinforcement and application? Is it effective?

Linda Dausend is a consultant at FlashPoint. She consults with clients on talent management, helping to align their human resources programs with organizational strategies.

*For more information about high-impact learning organizations, see David Mallon, Janet Clarey, and Mark Vickers, The High-Impact Learning Organization Series (Oakland, Calif.: Bersin by Deloitte, 2012).

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While business professionals still sit for hours in front of computers at work and at home, they spend increasing time with mobile devices. Consider the following statistics:

• There are almost 6 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions worldwide, according to the ICT Data and Statistics Division of the International Telecommunication Union.¹
• According to survey data by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 87 percent of Americans had cell phones as of January 2013 and 45 percent had smart phones. As of April 2012, 55 percent of adult cell owners used the internet on their mobile phones, and 31 percent said that they “mostly go online using their cell phone, and not using some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer.”²
• In 2012, 31 percent of the U.S. population used tablets, totalling 74 million users. That’s up from 12 percent, or 28 million users, in 2011. By 2016 it is expected that more than 40 percent of the population will adopt the use of tablets.³

Not surprisingly, then, job searches on smart phones and tablets are exploding. According to the Career Network, 77 percent of job seekers use mobile search applications.⁴ According to Google, about a third of job searches late last year were on mobile devices, up from 17 percent a year earlier. CareerBuilder and Indeed say they’ve experienced twice the number of mobile searches in the course of the past year.⁵ I did a quick search in the iTunes application store and found 132 job search applications.

There are also applications available for employers to optimize mobile recruiting. CareerBuilder, Simply Hired, and Indeed offer employers mobile apps that let job seekers send resumes and ask questions. AutoSearch is an application that helps recruiters search the web, including such sites as LinkedIn, Twitter, Zoominfo and Jobster, to find candidates’ mobile phone numbers. It allows the recruiter to send candidates a text to gauge interest. And text messages have a 92 percent read rate, a definite advantage over the single-digit read rate of e-mails!⁶

Unfortunately, many companies are missing out on top candidates because their websites or job applications aren’t optimized for mobile. Consider the following:⁷

• Less than a third of companies with more than 500 employees have optimized their websites for mobile devices—so mobile job seekers must contend with small type that’s hard to read.
• According to CareerBuilder and Simply Hired, only about 2% of Fortune 500 companies customize job applications for mobile users. Candidates often have to apply via third-party sites with lengthy forms (some applications may be as long as 15 pages).
• Highly valued talent who value themselves or their time won’t tolerate an inefficient application process. For example, CareerBuilder finds that when mobile job seekers use the full site to apply for a position (rather than the mobile site CareerBuilder offers), about 40 percent abandon their search.

Statistics like these show just how critical it is that talent management professionals optimize their career pages for mobile devices. Of course if you do this, you’ll need to align your effort with your overall organizational strategy and talent strategy, and you’ll need to coordinate with your IT colleagues.

The articles I’ve cited as sources will help you determine if optimizing your career page for mobile fits with your organizational and talent strategy. This information can also help you form a business case for doing so. Though not cited as a source, the article “9 Tips for Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Users” by Jamie Turner will help you prepare for your conversation with your IT business partners.

Meanwhile, if you have any experience with mobile recruiting, please share your thoughts and insights.

Bill Mugavin is a consultant at FlashPoint. He focuses his consulting on talent systems and processes, as well as leadership and management development.

Sources:

1.   The World in 2011: ICT Facts and Figures (International Telecommunication Union, 2011), http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/facts/2011/material/ICTFactsFigures2011.pdf.

2.   Joanna Brenner, “Pew Internet: Mobile” (Pew Internet and American Life Project, January 31, 2013), http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/February/Pew-Internet-Mobile.aspx.

3.   Phyllis Furman, “Tablets’ Popularity Is through the Roof: Nearly One-Third of U.S. Internet Users Have One: Survey” (New York Daily News, June 19, 2012), http://www.nydailynews.com/news/money/tablets-popularity-roof-one-third-u-s-internet-users-survey-article-1.1097990.

4.   77% of Job Seekers Use Mobile Job Search Apps (Beyond.com, 2011), http://about.beyond.com/infographics/mobile-job-search-apps.

5.   Paul Davidson, “Employers’ Old Tech Hurts Hiring as Job Hunts Go Mobile” (USA Today, February 24, 2013), http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/02/24/mobile-job-search/1938177/.

6.   Jennifer T. Arnold, “Recruiting on the Run” (HR Magazine, February 2010), http://www.shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/2010/0210/pages/0210tech.aspx.

7.   Davidson, “Employers’ Old Tech Hurts Hiring as Job Hunts Go Mobile.”

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Recently I began a group coaching initiative with a national organization in the healthcare industry. When I met with the participants, one of the goals that quickly emerged was each person’s desire to strengthen his or her professional network. Many of the participants were uncertain about how exactly to go about this. Still others thought knowing more people, say bumping their LinkedIn connections from 300 to 400, was directly correlated with the strength of their network. We explored different approaches they could take, and below are five tips we discussed to help them “net” the right contacts with minimal “work.”

Bigger isn’t better. First, throw out all the advice books that you’ve read that advocate for building an ever-larger social network through attending ceaseless events and handing out business cards like flyers on the Las Vegas strip! Fifteen years of research conducted by Rob Cross at the University of Virginia indicates that, when it comes to networking, bigger isn’t actually better. In fact, Cross found that a too-large network can serve as a significant career derailer.

The wrong network can derail your career. Yes, networking can be a career derailer! Consider this—to what extent are you energized by your interactions with people already in your social network? Do you come away from some interactions feeling vibrant and engaged? Do other conversations leave you feeling zapped of vigor and focus? These responses are the difference between interacting with an energizer and, for lack of a better terminology, an energy sucker. Cross’s data demonstrates that having energizers in your network is a strong predictor of personal success. Conversely, energy suckers will derail your best career intentions by costing you valuable time and energy. Rather than expanding your network, consider unloading people who block your productivity, joy, creativity, and momentum.

It’s who you know and what they think about you. While the mantra “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is still true, the math of social networking is more nuanced than just “who” and “how many.” It actually matters more what the people in your network actually think of you. So, so don’t forget to always put your best foot forward.

Develop a leadership middle-class. Executives in particular can be derailed by their network when it balloons to epic proportions and becomes unmanageable. If you find your productivity suffering and projects mounting, create a middle-level of leadership—trusted team members to spearhead initiatives and make decisions on your behalf. This endeavor will be beneficial to all parties. Your high performers will get to take on additional leadership and responsibility and you will be able to use your time more effectively!

Give before you get. Building a network is about building relationships. So, instead of approaching interactions with a “getting” mindset, adopt a spirit generosity. Ask what you can give to another person to nurture a relationship. Take a vested interest in the life, pursuits, dreams, and challenges others are facing. You’ll make friends and create trusted colleagues in the process!

Taryn Stejskal is a consultant at FlashPoint where she supports clients in the areas of leadership development and executive coaching.

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As FlashPoint works with businesses, we find that those who focus on developing leadership competencies—“people management skills”—tend to be the ones adding customers and staff, while employers who cut training and development are anemic and still recovering from the recession. As someone once said, “You can’t cut your way to growth.”

Managers are the human “levers” of productivity in every organization because they determine the quality of staff hired, the quality of onboarding provided to new hires, the quality of the stretch assignments and development opportunities team members receive, as well as the quality of recognition and feedback offered to employees.

Your managers model what they know—or don’t know. If they do not model your organization’s values, or your industry’s best practices and efficiencies, and if they do not make time to actually lead their staffs, how can their team members do their jobs to the fullest? If your managers are not confident in their abilities to make and implement decisions, how can they lead others?

Consider:

1. A 3Q 2012 survey conducted by Walker Information found that manager loyalty declined significantly below that of employees. Only 61 percent of employees were “truly loyal” while a surprising 41 percent of middle managers and only 39 percent of front-line supervisors were truly loyal. Truly loyal employees decline job offers to leave, participate in training and development, accept promotions, willingly update their job descriptions to reflect today’s realities and can see themselves staying at least two more years. How can managers who feel less loyalty than their employees lead them to higher productivity?

2. According to the Gallup organization, one in six employees says that his or her manager is “the most disliked” aspect of the job. Is that why some organizations have 25 percent, 35 percent or even 50 percent turnover even though only 13 percent of the workforce says they plan to leave their jobs this year? It is not easy to find the next job, no matter your level. Could it be that employees really do leave their managers, not the employer?

3. In a fall 2012 survey of more than 200 Indiana HR professionals from across Indiana, FlashPoint learned that the greatest overall issue Indiana employers face is developing and training talent, especially leaders. In addition, the number one growing issue in talent management is finding and developing strong managers. Retaining and recruiting top talent will only be exacerbated without the presence of well-developed managerial and leadership skills.

4. Wise organizations use multiple before-and-after comparisons to calculate their return on investment (ROI) after leadership development efforts are completed. In the year following management development, organizations often use multiple metrics to track these bottom-line killers:

• Absenteeism
• Turnover

In addition, organizations review bottom-line builders such as:

• Earnings per employee
• Evaluation scores for needed competencies and overall performance
• Integration of proven leadership behaviors as reported by managers’ staff members

5. Teams that score highly on productivity and profitability, according to the Gallup organization, also rate their managers highly for:

• Clearly stating what is expected of employees
• Showing care, interest and concern for their staff
• Enabling employees to be in roles that fit their abilities
• Providing feedback and recognition regularly for work well done

If there is more change outside of your organization (in your marketplace among your clients and prospects) than there is inside it, your organization is falling behind. Business changed in 2007. Trained managers are a must! If you have not restored your  budget for manager and leadership training, or if you’re focusing on the 1990s concepts of control, coordination and correction, instead of today’s care, communication, feedback and recognition, it’s time for a turnaround. What is the key to employee productivity and bottom-line growth? It’s the managers!

Nancy S. Ahlrichs is strategic account manager at FlashPoint where she interacts with human resource professionals, executives, and business owners in order to understand their organizational needs. She collaborates with our other team members to develop appropriate consulting solutions and supports prospects throughout the sales process.

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“Garbage in, garbage out” was a phrase often used by my favorite professor in grad school. He told us that if we didn’t ask the right questions, we wouldn’t get the right data, and we wouldn’t make the right decisions. With the greater emphasis in talent management on using data to inform decisions and reinforce initiatives, survey writing skills are becoming increasingly more important (data geeks rejoice!).  

In a previous blog I presented 10 questions you should ask before you develop a survey. Below are five common mistakes to avoid when writing a survey and my proposed solutions/better ideas:

Once the survey is written, run a pilot test! Have someone else (preferably a small group of people) take the survey and give you feedback on the items and how they interpreted them.

These are just some of the common mistakes I see. What other mistakes have you seen? What are your tips for writing great surveys? How are you using surveys in your organization?

Megan Crowley is an associate consultant at FlashPoint. With a background in industrial/organizational psychology, Megan contributes a unique perspective based on some of the newest research and techniques in her field.

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