Org-Fitness Today!

Assessment Use Growing?

According to the Institute for Corporate Productivity, the use of psychological assessments for selection and development is on the rise. The percentage of business organizations that currently use assessments for these purposes is 58.3 percent and it is expected to rise to 75 percent.

With estimates of between 3000 and 7000 different assessment tools available, it's important to choose a good tool when using assessments. If you would like to know more about some of the things to consider when trying to choose an assessment, please contact me and we can discuss your interests.

What is it I do?

Recently someone called me and was asking what I did for work. They knew I had the MSOD degree from Pepperdine University however they wanted to know more specifically.

Some of my friends think I do fitness related work within organizations. That would be nice, however it's not the case. Certainly fitness is a serious interest of mine, however that's not what I do everyday as a vocation.

So as I talked on the phone with this person, I described what I do:

"I am an organizational consultant who uses his training in OD consulting to provide management and leadership development training to organizations. I often times bring to my clients expertise and experience in team building, communication and dealing with strategic change. Additionally I provide executive coaching using assessments to provide a developmental framework for my clients."

After I finished the call and it went on for a while as we discussed this and some of the challenges this person was facing in their work environment, I realized this was a pretty good summary of what I do. For this reason, I wanted to capture it. We all have our niches and areas of expertise, this is mine.

Why Use Assessments?

I am a strong believer in the use of assessments for developmental or executive coaching. Maybe I should say, I am a big believer in assessments for development and learning in general. In my own experience I have taken numerous assessments over the years and find the results of these assessments to be very informative.

Assessments help me learn about myself and confirm what I already know and sometimes I learn about blind spots or get feedback on areas of my behavior that I was not aware of. Regardless of the assessment, the important thing to remember is that assessment results are just data or feedback. What I do with that data or feedback is up to me.

Recently while engaged in coaching a client, I was doing some interviews with people around this client. I use interviews (kind of like a verbal 360-degree) to help me learn more about a client and to confirm (or not) assessment results. Asking some very straight forward and simple questions I learned from Marshall Goldsmith, these interviews are an easy way to verify information about the client.

I use the assessment results and the interview data to coach the client and provide actionable feedback. Actionable feedback provides the client with something they can actually use. Of course actually doing something with the feedback is all up to the client. As a coach, I can only do so much. It is up to the client or the person being coached to make the change.

Essentially a good assessment provides a faster way for clients to learn and understand themselves. One assumption I make is that most people want to do their best. Focusing on behaviors that people can act on is key. Assessments help in this area.

Assessment Tool: InsightMirror360

There are lots of assessment tools on the market these days. Being in this field for almost 20 years I have certainly seen my share of assessments. The InsightMirror360 is one we have been aware of and recommending for about a year now.

360-degree feedback tools get bantered about all the time. Used properly, they can be a good tool for individuals and organizations. In my mind, these tools are great for providing developmental feedback to leaders and managers.

What I like about the Insight tool is it's ease of use--everything can be done on-line and the fact that it includes a well thought out Action Guide. I've linked a brief fact sheet (click here) on the InsightMirror360.

Click here for a review of this action guide in Government Training News.

Click here for some client testimonials. 

Please contact me if you would like more info on this assessment.

Preaching to the Choir: Employee Development

For some of you, this is like "preaching to the choir" and for others it is just a reminder of what we need to be doing (or should be) with our employees. AllBusiness.com has a daily e-mail tip of the day and today's tip has to do with employee development. Titled Employee Development Is The Key to Success. Employee development has been mentioned several times by employees as the key to retention.

Here's a list of six ways to encourage employee development from the AllBusiness site:

1. Support employee development and training programs
2. Assign mentors to junior employees
3. Offer tuition reimbursement
4. Emphasize and encourage development
5. Recognize and reward employee growth
6. Promote from within

Do you offer a comprehensive employee development program? How do you encourage employee development in your organization?

Leadership, Talent Management, Coaching and Mentoring. DDI Research

DDI has released a major research report that included over 4000 leaders from 42 countries. Essentially leaders said to include more mentoring and coaching in the development cycle and include more "learning by doing." This was essentially what leaders said almost 10 years ago as I was researching my Master's thesis, The Relationship of Executive Development to Strategy Implementation.

Randy Emelo of Triple Creek Associates has done a nice summary of the DDI study as it relates to his focus, Open Mentoring.

http://www.3creek.com/resources/research/Talent_Management.pdf

http://www.3creek.com/resources/presentations/TalentManagement.pdf

While training is still a part of talent development, it is clear that including coaching in the process will make it have a bigger impact. Unfortunately coaching is underutilized by many organizations.

Just like my thesis pointed out, the DDI research found the most effective activities for learning and development are special job assignments either in or outside of a leaders regular duties.

How about you? What has been most effective for your learning and development?

Steve Shapiro: A "Cool Friend" of Tom Peters

Over at Tom Peters site, he has interviewed author Steven M. Shapiro, in Tom's Cool Friends section. Steven is the author of Goal-Free Living: How to Have the Life You Want NOW!

What I took from this interview is another confirmation that there is a huge chunk of the population out there that is unmotivated by goals. I want to read this book to learn more.

So much of what takes place in the workplace and in business in general is goal orientated. This is a good thing or a lot of work might not ever get finished or accomplished.

However, mangers and leaders must learn that many people have other factors which motivate them. Learning about what motivates people is a key management or leadership competence. This gets into an area we'll save for another day. Click here to read the interview with Steven.

Employee Development: Still Not Formalized in Most Companies

In today's world, it is still quite rare for companies to have formalized development programs for individual employees. However, more and more companies are realizing the benefits and advantages of providing individual development plans for employees.

A recent Inc. magazine survey, reported that 84% of human resource professionals do not use a formal or structured employee development process. These HR professionals reported using generic training programs for such topics as customer service.

Employee Satisfaction and the Service Profit Chain: New Confirming Research

The Service Profit Chain was first popularized by James L. Heskett and others in a 1994 Harvard Business Review article. He subsequently wrote a book, The Service Profit Chain (1997) which details even more research. Essentially what research at Sears and other organizations shows is a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer service.

If employee satisfaction (ES) goes up, a few months down the road, customer satisfaction (CS) will also rise, and most importantly, profit goes up too.

ES + CS = Increased Profit

The reverse is also true, so if employee satisfaction drops, the other factors drop as well.

Does your company have an easy way to measure this? How about a web-based solution?

Benefits of Business Coaching

Often times people ask; "What is coaching?"

One of the best ways to answer that is with results. Business coaching can have an impact on many areas of a business. There is increasing evidence that coaching is one of the most powerful ways of developing people. More importantly, coaching can add to bottom line business performance in the following ways:

• An increase in productivity
• Increased customer service
• Reduction in costs
• Increased bottom line profitability
• Increased retention of key people
• Improved relationships with direct reports
• Improved relationships with direct line manager
• Improvement in teamwork
• Reduction in conflict
• Improved working relationships with clients

These are typically areas of concern for all businesses, small or large. Performance improvement in these areas is all possible with the support of a good business coach.