When Is a Leader a “High Potential”?

June 25, 2010

By Steve Hrop

A few years ago I was in a meeting with Jerry (not his real name), the Chief HR Officer at a large financial services company.  We were discussing how to identify high potential leaders from across the company to participate in an executive development program.  Jerry asked me to explain the difference between a “high potential” leader and one who has demonstrated a consistent track record of exceptional performance over the years.  This was partially a trick question since he believed that anyone who fit the latter description was by definition a high potential and found it hard to imagine any meaningful difference between the two types of leaders.  Yet the differences are significant.

As noted in a recent Harvard Business Review article (“How To Keep Your Top Talent”; HBR, May 2010), only about 30% of high performing leaders have significant advancement potential.  Put another way, 70% of high performing leaders do not qualify as “high potential”!  What this suggests is that a track record of high performance is a necessary, but not sufficient, factor in determining which leaders are high potential.

A clear picture of the other factors is beginning to emerge.  Research by the Center for Creative Leadership and other organizations points to the importance of Learning Agility.  Among the core elements of learning agility are:

  •  Intensely inquisitive
  • Learns from mistakes
  • Seeks and uses feedback
  • Open to viewpoints that differ from his/her own
  • Willing to step outside his/her comfort zone

Those who read my last blog about leaders who cross-the-line ethically will notice that these descriptors are a virtual mirror image of those that characterize leaders with a predisposition to cross the line.

In addition to learning agility, the following factors are core elements of advancement potential:

  • Resourcefulness (ability to solve problems and overcome obstacles of a non-routine nature; this factor is a first cousin of learning agility)
  • Reserve Capacity (a good analogy is two college students studying for the same test; both achieve an “A”, but one required many more hours of study than the other; same result, but vastly different expenditures of time and energy).
  • Ability to think cross-functionally beyond his/her functional “center of gravity”; this ability is at the heart of being an effective general manager
  • Has an intense “outside-in” perspective 
  • Possesses an extended mental “time horizon” (i.e., the ability to anticipate potential issues and conceive of potential opportunities that lie beyond the current fiscal year)
  • A high level of career “aspiration”; many leaders with an exceptional track record of performance and financial success reach a point in their career when they’re no longer driven to make the sacrifices needed for continued advancement up the pyramid.  Companies that have big plans for such executives often are caught off guard when these leaders turn down a big promotion, wreaking havoc on the organizations’ succession plans.  The moral here is that companies cannot view high potential leaders as pawns on a chessboard.

Some skeptical readers will note that a high percentage of promotional decisions do not utilize such objective criteria, but are based on more dubious factors, such as: 

  • Being effective at “managing up” (while being viewed much less favorably by peers and direct reports)
  • Having the right “sponsor” in high places
  • Able to talk a good game (e.g., someone who shines in meetings and presentations attended by higher level executives, but is mediocre in terms of day-to-day performance)
  • Looks the part (“He’s tall, confident, articulate, and well-dressed, so he must be a real leader!”).  

If you think that last point is an exaggeration, consider the following true story:  several years ago I was in a talent review meeting attended by a company’s senior leadership team.  One of the attendees, a business unit president, stated that his test of whether or not someone is a “real leader” is a person who can walk into a room full of people he doesn’t know and command their attention by force of his charisma and bearing.  Beyond the naiveté, the fact that this executive exclusively used the “he” pronoun to define a real leader is a telling point.  

For those companies eager to enhance the accuracy of their high potential identification process, the best solution is to supplement subjective ratings of potential with more objective methods, such as leadership assessment tools designed to prevent rating inflation and “halo effect” results.  PRADCO’s online assessments (e.g., our Emotional Intelligence Index) use a forced choice response format that virtually eliminates these types of rater distortion.  Also, 360-degree feedback processes designed with the right safeguards can yield important insights into advancement potential.  Lastly, certain kinds of simulation exercises can add significant value to the talent identification process.

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Why Do Some Executives Cross the Line?

June 17, 2010

By Steve Hrop

While business integrity is a perennial issue, its prominence in the public consciousness waxes and wanes. The trigger for its re-emergence as a hot issue usually is a high profile incident involving a major corporation. Toyota and BP are recent examples. While these crisis-driven examples of lapses in business integrity are interesting, my objective in this blog is to highlight some of the factors that predispose leaders at all levels to cross the line in more everyday situations.

Business leaders who cross the line ethically fall into two categories: those who know they’re doing so (Bernie Madoff is the poster child for this type), and those who are unaware of having done anything wrong. The first type brings to mind a cartoon published in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago. Two guys are loading numerous documents into a paper shredder. One says to the other: “Someday we’ll look back on this and lie to a grand jury about it”.

Far more cases of unethical behavior fall into the second category. In an interview a few years ago, Lee Roy Beach, one of the world’s top decision researchers, spoke for all of us when he said:

 “The ethical lapses I’ve lived to regret didn’t seem like lapses at the time. It was only afterwards that I realized how badly I behaved. I wasn’t knowingly unethical; I simply failed to recognize that the situation was ethically dangerous”.

 The renowned author and executive coach Marshall Goldsmith made exactly the same point in a recent presentation I attended. A well-known metaphor that perfectly captures this tendency is “the boiled frog”. If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it quickly jumps out to safety. If you put a frog in a pot of room temperature water and gradually raise the temperature, the frog will remain in the pot until it’s boiled alive. In a similar way, executives take tiny steps toward unethical behavior until they cross the line without realizing it.

Examples of rationalizations by business leaders for unethical behavior are:

  • The company policy is unreasonable
  • We’ll wait until the lawyers tell us it’s wrong
  • Nobody will be hurt by this action
  • Our competitors are doing it too
  • If we don’t do it, our competitors will
  • We need to cut a few corners because of the tight deadline we’re facing

While all leaders are vulnerable to crossing the line unintentionally, I’ve identified a set of 15 personality factors that dramatically increase an executive’s predisposition to cross the line. These factors emerged from my executive coaching, leadership assessment and organizational research work over the past two decades. Here are seven:

  •  Unable to acknowledge and learn from mistakes (e.g., makes excuses, points the finger elsewhere, or becomes defensive)
  • Has an excessive sense of urgency to get things done by “yesterday” that leads to cutting corners
  • Seems to be angry about a lot of things (e.g., is often sarcastic, cynical, or derogatory)
  • Does not seek or welcome feedback (“Here are five reasons why my 360 Feedback results are WRONG”)
  • Lacks inquisitiveness and is low in “learning agility” (e.g., believes he/she “has nothing to learn”)
  • Responds with pat “sound bite” answers to concerns or problems brought to his/her attention
  • Has a rebellious us-versus-them mentality (e.g., tells his/her team: “Here’s another silly policy from the idiots at corporate headquarters”)

When an executive exhibits several of these factors (e.g., five or more), that’s a clear red flag. At PRADCO, our in-depth approach to leadership assessment enables us to assess these tendencies and work with leaders to become more self-aware of potential ethical landmines as they carry out their daily responsibilities. Readers interested in the full list of 15 factors can contact me at: shrop@pradco.com.

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Developing Leaders in the 21 Century

June 9, 2010

By Dorne Chadsey

This is the last of my blog posts focusing on the services we provide to schools and other educational organizations. I’ve covered selection and training, and now I’ll turn to leadership coaching.

Over the past few years, school districts and universities have asked their staff to think of their institutions in a more business-like manner. Faced with severe budget cuts and increasingly frustrated taxpayers, administrators are forced to do more with less. This is one reason why it is critical that educational leaders demand more accountability and push to drive results.  In some cases, managers may be eager to do their best, but they just don’t know how to accomplish a certain assignment or other key part of their job. That’s where coaching can make a big difference in a person’s ability to meet the unique challenges of their role.

As the insightful author, Blaine Lee said: We are all capable of change and growth; we just need to know where to begin.

A case in point: A superintendent from a rural school district contacted us to conduct a 360° on one of his principals. The person in question was relatively new in his role and was failing. He had no idea how to take command of his school. His staff was not performing and they were not meeting their objectives.

A Leadership 360° pointed to several areas of weakness in the principal’s leadership approach.   He was not decisive enough, allowing his staff to control most decisions. He had low structure and poor follow-up, which made it easy for his staff to ignore his directives. Finally, he had a hard time influencing others or persuading them to take action. He had little control of the building.

This information was shared with the principal in a feedback session. What followed was several action planning meetings over a period of several weeks. The goal was to help him better understand his developmental areas and coach him to improve his performance.

We focused our efforts on helping him to make better decisions more quickly, and to work on establishing a structured  environment where expectations were clear and the staff  knew he would follow up to be sure they were hitting assigned targets and deadlines. He worked hard to have an impact on others and become more influential.

 Some of the coaching we provided him included:

  • Setting specific goals and timelines for his staff
  • Building a structure for them to work within
  • Regularly monitoring their progress
  • Becoming more demanding and refusing to accept excuses for non-performance

By the end of the school year, he was in control of his staff and they were accomplishing their goals. He set the direction for his team, held them accountable and emerged as a leader with a bright future. 

A lesson to be learned: Administrators want to do a good job, but many lack leadership skills. PRADCO has developed tools designed to help uncover areas for improvement and PRADCO’s professional coaching staff helps struggling managers change their behaviors and improve their performance.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my blog posts. I am passing the “pen” to one of my colleagues Steve Hrop from our greater New York City office. I’m sure Steve will have many insightful thoughts to share.

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Training for Educational Organizations

June 4, 2010

By Dorne Chadsey

Hello again.  We all bring our life experiences to our careers.  I’m sure you can name some that have shaped who you are today. Let me share one of mine with you. It will not surprise those who know me, but I had a hard time keeping quiet in class as a kid. Consequently, during my early years in school, I spent a lot of time in the hallway causing me to miss many important lessons; thing is……..I was home-schooled!

But, we know that behaviors we developed over time can be changed.  This post focuses on the importance of identifying specific training your staff may need to drive better results.

PRADCO takes a unique approach to developing training programs for our clients. In order to understand the client’s needs, we recommend using an assessment and/or a 360° degree feedback instrument to identify common themes that should be addressed. By tailoring a program to meet specific requirements, we allow participants to take the information and implement the learning immediately.

We recently began working with a College. The VP of HR wanted to know how we could assist her to determine what training strategies would help her staff in a cost-effective manner. She found that many service providers suggest broad-based training programs that have little to do with the actual needs of the participants. The folks may leave with a warm feeling and some motivation, but the result is that little changes over time. Many see this approach is a waste of effort and precious resources. At PRADCO, we gather data through an assessment process that pin-points where to focus the training.

In another case, we worked with the Superintendent of a mid-size School District in Ohio. He recognized that his team struggled to work together because they did not communicate with each other effectively and seemed to be engaged in district turf wars. The net effects were hard feelings, duplicative efforts, lower productivity and diminished community support. He had his management team take our 360° assessment. We compiled the data and shared our findings with the Superintendent who asked us to develop training in the areas of communication and team-building.

Bottom line: To prepare your leaders for tomorrow, you must give them the tools, confidence and motivation to prepare for the challenges of the 21st century.

Keep in mind:

When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.

Ancient Chinese Proverb 

My final post will focus on Leadership Development and the importance of coaching tomorrow’s leaders.  Stay tuned.

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Selecting the Best Candidates for Your School District

May 21, 2010

Hello again! I mentioned in my introductory Blog that I want to focus on discussing how PRADCO assists the Educational Services sector in three main areas — Selection, Training and Leadership Development. 

 This week’s blog deals with Selection.   We know that a bad hiring decision results in years of underperformance.  A Superintendent recently told me, “When I hire a teacher, it is a million dollar decision for the district, so I need to make sure I am making the best choice I can.”   He is correct.  It is difficult to dismiss a teacher once they have tenure.  Poor teachers can hamper children’s progress and, in some cases, turn them off to lifelong learning. 

Dr. Ray Fisman, professor at the Columbia University Business School wrote a great article about teacher selection.  He said if districts did a better job of hiring great educators to begin with, test scores for kids would improve and allow for increased learning capabilities.  He also indicated that in poor families, kids who have excellent teachers tend to stay in school longer. This can help them increase their lifetime earnings, which helps to end the cycle of poverty. 

 We all remember a great teacher who created a spark within us and helped us excel in some way.  Most likely, he or she had a passion for the subject matter, was motivating, acted with integrity, exhibited great communication skills, set challenging goals, and was flexible in adapting to different situations in the classroom. 

 I had several teachers that inspired me over the years.  In fact, this is a great time to give them a “shout-out” and thank them for all of their help.

 Mrs.  Doe, [3rd grade] thanks for opening my world to reading [in summer school] and showing me that books can unlock a lifetime of learning. She had the amazing ability to make the “Dick and Jane” books sound like they were Pulitzer Prize winning novels.

 Mrs.  Hoyer, [10th grade English/Drama club] wrote in my senior yearbook, “a man for all seasons.”   She told me I could do anything I put my mind to [that was a year after she screamed at me for not having memorized my lines the night before our Junior Class play opened.  I ended up ad-libbing the entire play……and I was one of the leads!]

 Mr.  Harriman, [12th grade Political Science] taught me to argue with facts, stick to my opinion and have passion for fairness in our world; I still think he was a communist.

 Dr.  Edmonds, Communications Professor in Graduate School who said…”Hey you’re not as dumb as you look, keep it up, you will do well”! 

 There are many great teachers like this in our educational system today.  How to find the next one is the $$million dollar challenge.

 One way to increase your chances of finding great teachers is to use the system that one of our clients use.   This Superintendent told me his goal is to become one of the top districts in his state.  He has his hiring team use a behavioral based interview process on the front end so he can increase his chances of finding that next great hire.  By using behavioral interviewing, he learns how the applicant has handled situations in the past; knowing that past behavior is a good predictor of future performance.  Asking questions that deal with hypothetical situations are the poorest way to predict how a candidate will behave in the classroom.  Unfortunately, many interviewers ask “what would you do” rather than “what have you done.”

 Once he has narrowed the field down to 2 or 3 candidates, he uses an assessment tool that measure behaviors to help him select the best candidate for the job.  With the assessment results, he and his committee can make an informed hiring decision.   By the way, his District is well on their way of becoming one of the best in the State!

 So, what can you do to increase your odds of selecting the best candidates for your open positions? Here are several things you can do to increase your chances of success:

 Use behavioral interviewing. Ask open-ended questions and probe for specific examples of what the person did, not what they would do. 

  • Use a behaviorally based assessment tool that measures the things your institution wants and needs for the 21st century. 
  • Do not be afraid to pass on your candidate pool and re-cast the net.  Keep the search open until you find the right person. 

 PRADCO has developed a series of tools to help educational organizations select the best candidates for their systems.  We have tools specifically designed to assess classified, certified and administrative positions.   It is rewarding to get a call from a Superintendent a year after they hired someone and hear that our selection tools were accurate and helped them make a great hiring decision.

 I’ll end this blog with this fact — there are many bright, eager and well-suited applicants out there.  Your challenge is to find them and hire them for your classrooms.  Demanding the best for our kids is a civic and ethical obligation.  Anything less does kids, their parents and taxpayers a disservice for many years to come.  Remember,

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. 

Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918) American historian, journalist and novelist. 

Why are public schools so bad at hiring good instructors?

By:  Dr. Raymond Fisman

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Similarities Between Sports and Business

May 4, 2010

By Sam Maniar

As I mentioned in my first blog entry, my background is in sport psychology. I often get asked about the overlap between my previous role as a sport psychologist and my current role at PRADCO. So, today I’d like to discuss the similarities between successful athletes and successful business people.

Successful athletes must possess some key attributes in order to succeed:

 Drive
 Ambition
 Goal-Directed
 Focus
 Discipline
 Confidence
 Mental Toughness / Resilience

You can probably see where I am going with this. These same characteristics apply to successful people in business—whether they are an administrative assistant, engineer, salesperson, manager, or executive.

Athletes are always looking for a way to get an edge on their competition. For the most part, they all practice the same amount of time, they know the same drills, and they have access to the same resources. But sound mental training (i.e., sport psychology) can often make the difference between a winner and a loser. Therefore, many athletes utilize sport psychology techniques on a regular basis, such as:

 Goal Setting
 Imagery/Visualization
 Relaxation Training
 Thought Management
 Pre-Performance Routines & Plans

These same techniques can help a non-athlete become more successful in business and life. For example, there are countless studies documenting the performance improvement that comes from spending 5-10 minutes a day visualizing an upcoming competition. So, my question to you is: How often do you visualize important meetings or events in advance? My guess is not very often. Think about the performance improvements that could occur. It could make the difference between you and your competitors, or even between you and a peer going for the same promotion.

Sports can be a great metaphor for business, but we can and should apply more than just a story about a favorite athlete or team. If you want to get an edge on your competition, utilize some of the same techniques athletes do.

That’s all for now. For the month of May, I’ll be passing the PRADCO blogging reins over to Dorne Chadsey, who I’m sure will inform, entertain and amuse you with his insights.

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Call Center Hiring

April 26, 2010

By Sam Maniar

I was recently reading Adrienne Fox’s “The Ins and Outs of Customer Contact Centers” in the March, 2010 issue of HR Magazine. Ms. Fox does a great job of discussing the importance of considering people issues before making the decision to outsource call centers. Clearly, there are many costs associated with outsourcing that are not always considered, such as the negative impact on brand, loss of control, etc.

In the article, Jared Fletcher, VP of Strategic Sourcing, recommends that call centers ask outsourcers about several areas, such as their ability to identify fit with the customer’s unique culture and their retention rate. Below, I’d like to elaborate on these two areas.

Whether you outsource your call center or not, it is extremely important to identify fit with your specific culture. When PRADCO developed the Call Center Index (CCI) last year, we found that there were many similarities as far as what most call centers said they wanted in their applicants: dependability and punctuality, service to customers, ability to articulate thoughts and listen to customers, and attention to detail. However, we often find different or contradictory evidence when we compare top and bottom performers in a given organization. For example, though we were told that Service and Communication were two of the most important behaviors to identify, in some centers, high scores on these dimensions are also correlated with fewer calls, longer hold time, and lower results. In many call centers, that would drastically hurt the bottom line.

Thus, we tried to take all of our survey and statistical findings into account when creating the CCI. We ended up with 16 key behaviors that are assessed, but the most important behaviors differ from one organization to another. The same candidate may be a great fit for one call center and a poor fit for another.

If you have an objective system in place that helps you hire people based on fit, then retention numbers should naturally improve. Yet it is still common to hear of annualized turnover rates of 100% – 200% in some call centers! Some call centers tell me that the cost of assessment is too high. Yet, what are the costs of turnover rates this high, and how much would be saved by reducing turnover? Are you willing to pay a few dollars up front in order to significantly reduce your turnover and improve your productivity?

So whether you outsource your call center or not, remember all the costs involved. But also keep in mind the cost of objectively evaluating your candidates versus not doing so. If you outsource, many outsourcers will include an objective assessment as part of their process. If you keep your call center internal, make sure you are using a valid and objective pre-hire assessment. Though this may cost you additional money upfront, it can save you thousands or more in the long run.

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Listening to Our Customers

April 16, 2010

By Sam Maniar

As I mentioned in my previous entry, one aspect of my role at PRADCO is business development.  I quickly realized that my psychology training did not prepare me for such a role and decided to attend some sales and customer service workshops.  One of the things that seemed to be mentioned repeatedly was the importance of getting feedback from your clients, so I came back to the office one day and suggested we do just that.

Now, it’s not that we hadn’t gotten feedback from our clients in the past. Because of the feedback our clients previously gave us, we made several changes, such as:

  • Adding suggested interview questions to our Index reports;
  • Adding coaching suggestions to our assessment reports;
  • Making all of our reports easier to read and interpret; and
  • Offering a high-potential coaching package.

We just hadn’t done it in a large-scale, structured process.  I’d like to share with you some of what we learned from the data and some of my take-aways.

The first area that I was intrigued by was how our clients came to find out about us.

 

I was surprised to see that the majority (82%) of our clients either joined an organization that already used us or were referred by a colleague. This told me that it is extremely important to stay in touch with our clients and to stay at the front of their minds.

The second area of interest to me was how satisfied our clients were.

I was at first happy to see that 91% of our clients were satisfied.  However, if we continue to maintain a 91% satisfaction rating and lose 9% of our clients each year, we would only retain 76% of our clients after 3 years.  This would mean that we would lose ¼ of our clients by 2013!

The old adage about it taking 10 happy customers to refer you to just 1 person but only 1 dissatisfied customer to tell 10 potential customers makes a lot of sense with regard to these numbers.

So, 91% satisfied might be good enough for some companies, but it certainly is not good enough for PRADCO.  As a result, we have started to contact everyone who ranged from “somewhat satisfied” to “very dissatisfied” to see what we could do.  In many cases, the issue was a misunderstanding, but without the data and the follow-up call, we may have lost that person as a client.  In other instances, we received great feedback on how to make our products and services even better.

The third area that stuck out was the way our clients utilize us.

 

To me, this was shocking.  We knew that 91% of our clients were satisfied, and yet, most of our clients only know us for one thing: pre-employment assessment.  We clearly need to do a better job of communicating the other ways we can help organizations, such as coaching, 360s, training, job modeling, etc.  My guess is that many of our customers have no idea that we even offer these services.

In sum, I learned quite a bit:

  1. It is important to stay in touch with our clients.
  2. We need to continue to listen to our clients’ ideas on how we can improve.
  3. We need to do a better job of sharing and communicating additional ways we can be of service to our clients.

If you conduct customer satisfaction surveys, I’d love to hear what you have learned.  Or, if you are a customer of ours and have additional feedback, we’d love to hear that as well.  Until next week, take care.

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Meet Sam Maniar

April 9, 2010

Tell us a little about yourself and your role at PRADCO.

This is my first blog post, and I’m looking forward to writing more over the next month.

I serve as the Director of Talent Assessment at PRADCO, which means I oversee all of the pre-hire assessments that we conduct for our clients.  In addition, I am involved in coaching, training, and business development.

Prior to joining PRADCO, I was a Sport Psychologist for The Ohio State University.  I also provided sport psychology and corporate consulting to various other organizations as well.  Because I was in the unique perspective to observe and work with many elite coaches, athletes, and teams, I often incorporate lessons and metaphors from sport into the consulting I do with organizations and clients.  It is truly amazing how much overlap there is between sport and business! I am a Licensed Psychologist as well, though I try not to tell people this when traveling on airplanes.

What do you like best about your job?

Without a doubt, my favorite part of the job is interacting with people and helping them find solutions to their problems.  I feel a great deal of satisfaction from helping our clients reduce turnover, make better hires, increase revenue, and develop high-potential employees.  In 2009, we noticed a big uptick in coaching for high potentials.  Given that the “new normal” is “doing more with less,” I expect this trend to continue.

Tell us something about yourself that even your co-workers don’t know.

While in high school, I was a member of a U.S. track team that was competing in Scandinavia.  One day I woke up late for our morning run and couldn’t find my contact lenses.  During our run, I somehow managed to get separated from my team and ended up getting lost, with no money, no contact lenses, and no ability to communicate with the locals in Copenhagen.  After running 25 miles, arriving at the wrong hostel, begging for money, and taking two busses and a train, I got back to my team who had been waiting 2 hours on the bus for me to return.  I never got to thank the woman who generously gave me $20 to pay for transportation, but I often think about her act of kindness.

What is your favorite travel destination?

I have too many favorites to choose just one, especially since I like different places for different reasons.  Italy has such a rich culture, history, and food, the Canadian Rockies (Banff & Jasper) are breathtaking, Ireland has amazing pubs, and Las Vegas is just a whole lot of fun!

What are you currently working on?

I feel like I’m working on a little of this and a little of that.  Much of my attention has been focused on the analysis of our PRADCO customer satisfaction survey and on implementing our newest selection/development tool, the Call Center Index, in various organizations.  I’ll discuss both in upcoming blogs.

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Time for the Annual Check-up?

April 2, 2010

By Larry Borodkin

It has really been a very satisfying experience writing blog entries for the past month.  I have truly enjoyed being able to take some time and share some observations about my work at PRADCO.  It is hard to believe, but I have been associated with PRADCO as either an employee or end-user for nearly half my life!  In April, you will be hearing from a good friend and colleague, Sam Maniar.  I am confident that you will find his writings thought-provoking.  Sam brings much knowledge and experience to the job and he is a top-notch professional.  

I thought that I would talk a little about our client satisfaction survey and its application to our work.  Sam will go into much more detail about the survey results, but I was very pleased that the majority of our clients truly appreciated and valued the information received from PRADCO.  I also am pleased to announce that Jennifer Cohen, Director of Professional Personnel at the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, was the winner of $500 of PRADCO services.  Individuals who gave their contact information when completing the survey were eligible to win the prize.  Jennifer was very lucky because the first person drawn did not give his/her contact information so Jennifer and the Federation won the prize.  In her role at Federation, Jennifer is tasked with recruiting top-notch talent for the organization.  She uses our online indexes to help determine the potential strengths and developmental needs of each candidate.  She also determines how well the candidates compare against Federation’s defined success factors.  Overall, the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland has been using PRADCO tools for over 5 years as part of its selection program.

While the results were very positive from the survey, there were still areas for improvement which will be addressed.  Thinking about the client satisfaction survey results, I realize that this same approach is used in our 360 leadership development work.  It makes sense for organizations to learn how their external customers view their work.  In the same way, it is only logical that managers/executives should learn how their internal customers (direct reports, peers, etc.) view their own leadership abilities.  Just as organizations cannot predict every result a survey will yield, managers/executives also can learn things they may not have expected when participating in a 360 leadership program.  My own personal experience would support that notion.  On a recent 360 analysis, I was surprised that I was given a lower score on Coaching by my direct reports.  This was very puzzling to me.  I believed I always reviewed progress with my people, noting the successes and delivering constructive feedback when needed.  What I found out from the 360 was that my direct reports were looking to me to provide more “global” coaching.  They wanted to better understand how their performance related to their ultimate career goals.  Without the 360, I probably would not have learned this important perception of my “internal customers”.

Just as organizations need to accept the comments and/or perceptions of their external customers, managers/executives need to do the same thing.  They cannot discount the observations if they simply don’t believe or agree with them.  They need to be willing to look in the mirror, taking stock of their leadership strengths and their leadership developmental needs.  Also, just as organizations should survey their external customers on a regular basis, managers/executives should do the same.  Given that the current environment is ever-changing and extremely challenging, leaders need to get the current pulse of their internal customers.

Again, it has been a pleasure sharing some observations with you and I may offer an insight or two from time to time in the future.  I hope that you keep visiting our blog to learn more about PRADCO’s work and its staff.  Take care and keep striving to please those internal and external customers!     

 

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