Succession Planning for CEOs - how to make it work

From this excellent article: "The best CEOs are less worried about how their own reputation might fare in the #transition, and more focused on how the change will impact the institution moving forward."

There are some great #reflective #questions which would help anyone introspect on #careertransition choices, irrespective of the level one is at.

Read the article here.

#ceo #ceosuccession #successionplanning #handover #strengthsdecoder #performancecoach #leadershipstrategy #leadershipexcellence #leadershipjourney

Article - 3 Shifts to Creating Greater Career Ownership

 

Here's an interesting article on how to grow your career in the organization.  

Of course, the organization also has to support this through policy, opportunity and training.

“How do I get promoted?”

“I don’t see a clear career path.”

“My manager isn’t coaching me.”

Sound familiar? Today’s professionals expect more career development and mentoring than prior generations did. You could also argue that as the workplace is becoming more complex to navigate, employees of all tenures are becoming increasingly vocal about their need for more purposeful and clear direction.

Read the rest here.

In today's times and going forward, your career can go nearly everywhere.

 Interesting read on what to do about your #career since the old ways of working and progressing are pretty much obsolete.

Like this article mentions (I follow this too in my #careercoaching), it is absolutely critical to identifying one's #purpose. It's most effective when this purpose is grounded in one's #strengths. So yes - Up isn't the only way, and hasn't been for a while actually.

Click here to read the article.

Employee Engagement for All Situations

When people are financially invested, they want a return.  

When they are emotionally invested, they want to contribute

- Simon Sinek

Employee Engagement has been in the conscious mind more and more over the past decade, ever since it was talked about by Gallup's Curt Coffman and Marcus Buckingham in their ground-breaking book "First Break all the Rules".  It has frequently been quoted in HR conferences and HR initiatives along the lines of "X percentage of employees in organizations are disengaged".

Here's a simple definition from Google - "Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work". 


And Forbes.com - "Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals".


Here's what it looks like:

This means that employees put in more than required effort in their work, because they're not just working for a salary or bonus or promotion, but job satisfaction, transparency, along with fulfilling personal growth goals and other things.

A cursory google search will turn up loads of links on the topic, including definitions, how to do it, things to watch out for and so on.  And this article is not really about those things. This article is about what managers can do to drive engagement.

While we're at it, I would like to clearly state that Employee Engagement has nothing to do with fun activities (birthday celebrations, festival contests, annual day events) run by HR and / or line managers every month / quarter.  These are stress buster activities, nothing more, nothing less.  For those who think that these fun activities are employee engagement, ask yourself - "How many candidates will join my organization or take back their resignation because we are running these fun events?"

In my experience of twenty years in HR across different industries, Employee Engagement comes down to the relationship between the manager and his team. This is applicable to for all departments including HR.  Employee engagement is not the responsibility of HR, but the responsibility of anyone who leads a team, irrespective of organization level or delegation. When you come to think of it, it's also the responsibility of those who don't have teams, but work across the organization.  HR can provide a framework of Talent Management (Hiring, Performance Management, Rewards, Learning), but the actual work has to be done by the manager personally.

Why the manager?
The manager has to set goals for the team, ensure discipline, manage and monitor performance regularly, provide effective feedback, groom and develop his team members, and ensure goals are met.

So how does the manager drive engagement in his team ? (the term "he" is interchangeable with whatever term you like)

• He has to know his team, beyond their resumes.  
• He has to let the team get to know him / her - beyond the designation.
• He has to develop a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.  
• Define the goals
• Monitor and manage performance
• Enable them to understand and use their own motivation in their work.

Some may say - Who has time for all this?  It seems a lot of work, and it definitely does require substantial investment of time from the manager. Unfortunately, there's no shortcut from this time investment.  There is of course, the Situational Leadership Model by Dr. Paul Hersey  (Center for Leadership Studies) which can help the manager do all of this.

Here's an image of the model:

The #SituationalLeadership model will enable you to:

• Allocate the appropriate task to the correct employee
• Adopt an appropriate management style with each employee (not a one style fits all approach)
• Get employees to participate in the planning the execution of the department's work.
• Identify high performers
• Manage low performance
• Develop the capabilities of the team members

In a crisis or in Business As Usual (BAU), a leader / manager has to take frequent decisions in many areas where he and his team have to get things done.  The Situational Leadership model is an excellent guide for doing all the above-mentioned points. 
For Situational Leadership to succeed, the manager must know both his own Strengths and Weaknesses, as well as those of his teams. A tool such as the #CliftonStrengths or the #PRISM Brainmapping Professional (or DISC, FIRO-b, etc) is necessary as a precursor to ensure that the team becomes an engaged, smoothly-oiled unit. A few reflective questions to start  could be :

1. "What do I need from my team?"
2. "How do I support my team so that they deliver what I need from them?"

Of course, Team Coaching and Individual coaching will also help, along with regular conversations which treat the employee as a person and not just an employee.

Want to know more? Leave a note here, or write to me on ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com to set up a call. I can also be reached at +919820155778 for a conversation.

Tips on Rethinking Recruitment - mindset and strategies.

A sentence that nailed my attention "knowing that working with you is adding to their marketability that encourages people to stay". 


Organizations often struggle with hiring people, and retaining them.  In the current world we live in, the old style of hiring and rewarding loyalty is not feasible anymore.  Opportunities are many for today's workforce, nor is it feasible for an employer to offer job security.  What to do then? Do read this excellent viewpoint on #recruitment and #hiringstrategy.

Rethinking Recruitment 

If you would like to have a chat about streamlining your recruitment process for your organization, please don't hesitate to connect / contact me.

Strengths Based Career Conversations

How to have a Strengths Based Career Conversation

A #career conversation is simply a discussion between an employee and his or her manager that supports the employee in defining career goals within the organization and developing an action plan for achieving these goals.

Some organizations have incorporated this within their performance management process with a form of structure. This can lead to an engaged workforce (other things being equal - as an economist would say) with great prospects to retain the employees. As you may be aware, the performance management process in most organizations is used to identify areas of weakness, improvement or development. The term 'development' is sometimes understood and articulated as a deficiency or a lack of something (such as a Training / Development Need). This results in a marked tendency to treat 'development' as 'fixing' the employee's personality and performance, rather than enhancing it.

The term 'fixing' tends to create negativity; because it creates the perception and feeling that "I am less". This is not a pleasant experience. It can leave the employee feeling sad and frustrated. Sometimes employees even feel depressed and it spills over into their personal lives with more adverse effects. It's interesting to note that a negative discussion can be absorbing, but it is not very effective. The employee's performance doesn't improve very much. Neither is productivity is not enhanced, nor does this help retain employees within the organization. This can result in low employee development or low employee engagement.

A career conversation would be more effective if we were to approach the discussion with a #Strengths Mindset. It can definitely be combined with the Stay Interview or even as a standalone discussion, instead of the Exit Interview (which some organizations end up doing). In the Strengths Mindset Approach, the leader / manager of a team starts by asking the team members how he/she can support their team member's use of their strengths in their work. This means using tools like the Clifton Strengthsfinder to understand how these 34 strengths are manifesting in, and impacting their work.

A key outcome of using one's strengths as a basis for development is the strong sense of joy and satisfaction which one gets while one is on the job.

The employee now is doing something they like, using their areas of strengths, and this is going to make the employee more engaged at work, leading to a more positive and productive work environment.

I'm reminded of the time I worked at a startup where I was setting up the HR function, and was extremely happy because I got to plan and execute the strategy and policies of all aspects of HR, especially hiring strategy, talent management and training and development. Sure the hours were long, and there were difficulties and some failures too, but I was energized to be at the office. In other well established organizations too, my happiest moments were those where I was energized by what I was doing viz. creating a policy document, building reports, analyzing data, coaching /counseling an employee, or delivering an employee integration session; all with the full encouragement of my bosses. I've checked this during informal discussions with employees or during interviews of candidates by asking them what they like about what they do, followed by a few probing questions: the answer invariably has to do with them enjoying their work.

When you adopt a #Strengths-based #career conversation regularly, chances are, you and your team will:

•     Be looking forward to this discussion.
•     Come better prepared for the discussion.
•     Leave the conversation feeling happy and energized.
•     Have a more productive work environment.

When, as a Strengths Strategy Coach, I coach clients who desire to explore career options through the Clifton Strengthsfinder, After explaining how the 34 Strengths manifest, I move the conversation around the areas they have experienced great success. We discuss what worked well, and spend time identifying which of their strengths were in action during those instances. We repeat this to understand the areas where the strengths did not manifest sufficiently to bring them success. Why? To help them either:

• Manage around the weaknesses with the help of other strengths, or
• Choose projects which help them work for as much time as possible in areas of strength (every job / career has an area of work where we don't feel fulfilled e.g. planning, filing, follow-ups, setting up appointments), or
• Form strategic partnerships with other people to help them to use their strengths.

So if you want to know more about this, or if you want your teams to focus and work on their areas of strengths, have an engaged and productive team, write to me at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com to schedule a meeting or a free 20 minute telephonic discussion.

Remember -

    You grow people from their #strengths, not their weaknesses.

This article was posted  on LinkedIn in August 2017.