As Liz Truss, the UK’s new Prime Minister, starts her challenging role amidst multiple crises, it is worth reflecting on the principles underpinning effective leadership transitions.
Leadership transitions are becoming increasingly common. They occur when executives or leaders move to new jobs in different organizations or when leaders are promoted in their current company. However, in today’s hyper-competitive and volatile environment, successful moves are increasingly challenging, even for the brightest and most experienced leaders. The failure rate of new leaders is high and growing. For example, McKinsey found that 27-46% of executives who transition are regarded as failures or disappointments two years later.
So, what are the key guiding principles behind successful transitions:
Start before the person joins
Onboarding programs vary in scope and effectiveness, but many start the process too late, when the leader has already joined the organization.
To accelerate integration of the leader into the organization, it is advisable to start the process before day one. Steps companies can take to do this include providing new hires with:
A thorough onboarding and transition plan for the first 3-6 months and inviting input from the leader on specific questions they have that they’d like addressed.
Clarify expectations
Leaders starting a new role, especially those who are external hires, need a clear understanding of what is expected of them by different stakeholders and constituents. To expedite this process, HR departments can provide new leaders with an up-to-date organizational chart and stakeholder map, reflecting other key stakeholders that will be crucial to the leader’s effectiveness. They should also ensure new leaders have an opportunity to meet their superiors, peers, and other key stakeholders as quickly as possible. Ideally, responsibility should be delegated to an executive assistant or senior administrator to arrange these meetings as a matter of priority.
It is also important for HR to include a 1-1 session with the leader in the first week to talk through key HR policies, the employee handbook and any implicit expectations, norms and beliefs related to the company’s culture. This will help the leader understand what is expected of them, including all the unwritten rules and standards that don’t appear in the handbook and policies.
Provide a structured journey to support effective integration
Studies show that ramp-up time for external hires is typically six to nine months. This time can be accelerated with well-designed onboarding and integration programs. But an effective integration program will also reduce costly mistakes and U-turns, minimize staff morale and turnover problems, and promote strong relationships with the leader’s new team and stakeholders. Specific areas that the program should cover are detailed in the diagram below. Key aspects include:
Be clear on the development support and resources available
Together with an attractive remuneration package and supportive boss, access to engaging development and career opportunities is the factor most likely to motivate and retain talented leaders.
It is therefore important to clearly signpost development resources and program that may be of value to the new leader when they join. These should be aligned with their development goals, learning style and career aspirations. During the first 3 months, the leader should have an opportunity to sit down with their boss for a high-quality career dialogue. The purpose of this is to identify specific development goals and a Personal Development Plan to guide their development and growth. The leader should ideally also be offered an internal or external coach and mentor/s to support their development. This highly personalised approach to development has been found to be particularly effective for leaders and executives in transition.
Plan regular check-ins and feedback
It is important to schedule regular HR check-ins with the new leader at least every month to check on progress and share any feedback you and your team are hearing. Similarly, the leader’s line manager should ensure they maintain a cadence of weekly or fortnightly meetings with the new leader to discuss progress, answer any questions they may have and provide appropriate guidance, coaching and feedback.
These check-ins and review points are also a good opportunity to invite feedback from the new leader on their experiences, observations, and feedback, including suggestions to improve the team, business and onboarding process.
Provide expert coaching
New leaders can often feel isolated, and feelings of anxiety, fear and confusion are normal. Expert transition coaches understand these feelings and create a safe space for leaders to reveal their fears, limiting beliefs and vulnerabilities. They can also provide a neutral, non-judgemental sounding board for the new leader to test out ideas and alternative courses of action before taking significant decisions.
By providing a structured process, support, and regular check-ins to discuss progress, organizations will significantly improve success rates for external hires and newly promoted leaders. This will avoid the considerable financial and non-financial costs (including declines in team morale, unwanted turnover, customer losses and reputational damage) associated with transition failures.
If you would like to find out more about our transition support and coaching for new leaders, contact us at info@talentpredix.com
Recent studies show that 30-50% of new executives and leaders fail within the first 18 months. There are huge direct and indirect costs associated with such failure. The price of a failed leadership hire is estimated at 200% of first-year earnings and includes costs such as wasted recruitment fees, the cost of rehiring, poor productivity and lost customers. The toll for departing leaders is also very high. It includes damaged career trajectories, lost earnings, a decline in self-confidence and significant stress. The blame for leadership failure often lies with organizations that fail to provide effective support, guidance, and onboarding to new leaders. However, the reasons can often arise from the mindset, behaviours, and missteps of the incoming leaders. Some of the more common traps we see are as follows:
Failing to build strong relationships
When leaders transition into a new organization or business area, they often invest too little time getting to know their stakeholders and building a strong foundation of trust, respect, and openness. There are often good reasons for this, including getting pulled into resolving urgent challenges and crises by their boss and a desire to achieve early wins and maximum impact. However, this trap is often the one that undermines a leader’s effectiveness the most. They lose important insights about the organization or business area they are joining because of their failure to connect with and understand the expectations, perspectives, and styles of key stakeholders. By under-investing in relationship building, they will also be less effective in gaining the support and commitment of colleagues, direct reports, external advisors, and other constituencies who are essential to their success.
Arriving with fixed assumptions and beliefs
Leaders often fall into this trap as they are keen to prove their worth quickly by applying their experience to achieve quick wins in their new role. However, what’s worked in one context often doesn’t translate well to another. Although leaders may be able to get away with coming up with answers based on their past experiences during the initial weeks, this approach is likely to backfire if it becomes a regular pattern of behaviour. People soon tire of being told by the leader how things should be done based on what they’ve done in the past. They will start to question the leader’s judgement and commitment to the team and business, thinking to themselves “if it was so great at your previous company, why don’t you just go back there!”.
Overpromising
Many new leaders are keen to make people happy and win their backing and loyalty quickly. This trap is aptly illustrated by what we are seeing with many politicians today when they make lofty promises to their constituents that they can’t ever hope to meet. Such behaviour causes leaders to underdeliver on promises (often unintentionally) because these commitments are based on unrealistic optimism, poor assumptions, and an inadequate understanding of the realities. This self-sabotaging behaviour can quickly confuse people and leave them disappointed, undermining their integrity and damaging important relationships.
Forcing through change too quickly
Occasionally, leaders need to act quickly and be highly directive in the first few months in their new role. This typically occurs in turnaround situations where fast change is necessary to save the business. However, such situations are fortunately rare. Most leaders have time on their side during the first 3 months to learn about the business and understand the different options available to achieve the expectations of investors, employees, the board, and other key constituents. However, many leaders still jump in too quickly. They try to put their unique stamp on the organization by notching up some quick wins. They don’t establish clear priorities, overextend themselves and fail to achieve anything meaningful. To avoid this trap, new leaders should prioritize impact over action, establish a few key priorities for the first 3-6 months and defer complex decisions that require in-depth knowledge and insight. By taking more time to understand the priority challenges and aligning key stakeholders with the change agenda and process, leaders are more likely to succeed in delivering strong results.
Listening only to the loudest voices
Any new leader faces a multitude of different views and inputs from diverse stakeholders. The leader’s natural tendency will often be to listen most to the loudest voices, especially if these people are highly influential board members or investors. It is important for new leaders to resist this temptation and remain neutral until they understand the political structure and dynamics of the organization. To do this, it is important to meet with representatives from all key stakeholder groups, including direct reports, front-line employees, peers, their manager, customers, and key suppliers. This input will enable the leader to make better decisions based on the diverse perspectives they hear and better understand the alliances they need to build to deliver their strategy.
Inadequate discovery of the context and culture
As mentioned before, most new leaders don’t need to make big decisions on things like strategy, people, and products until they have gained a good understanding of the organization and are relatively confident in their knowledge. Specific areas leaders should prioritise understanding during the initial 90 days include:
As well as asking for all data and records that are important to aid this discovery, leaders should use their initial months to ask open and clarifying questions to understand different stakeholder perspectives. During this time, they should remain curious, non-judgemental, and critically minded so they can capture the full range of views and insights while surfacing questionable assumptions, biases, and flawed thinking.
Where it is evident that an external perspective would be helpful to make a better decision about an issue that is complex or requires specialist expertise, the leader can solicit the advice or guidance of an external advisor.
Context is crucial to the success of any new leader. Most leaders have a unique opportunity in their early months to undertake this discovery process in a thorough and systematic way, something that won’t be on offer once they’ve settled into the role.
Failure to adapt strengths, style, and approach
Leaders have different strengths, styles, and ways of working. Most develop well-established routines and habits in the way they use these, particularly if they have been in a role and/or organization for many years. But they need to avoid the trap of assuming what has made them successful in the past will guarantee success in future, as this is rarely the case. When taking on a new role, they need to ensure they adapt their strengths, style and approach to the specific challenges and needs of the organization. For example, if they have been leading a relatively new team and are taking over a well-established, high-performing team, they should adapt their style to ensure it is more participative and empowering. If they tend to be naturally decisive, opinionated and controlling, they may have to intentionally dial back on these strengths to avoid them being overdone with a more autonomous and experienced team. By adapting their strengths and style to the needs of their context, leaders can avoid getting trapped in past routines and habits that no longer work.
Becoming stressed and overwhelmed
New leaders often rush into their new job with a high degree of energy and enthusiasm. Because of their desire to make a positive impact as quickly as possible, they put in long hours and invest a great deal of physical, mental, and emotional energy in their new role. The competing pressures and conflicting demands on their time can quickly become all-consuming. If the leader neglects the warning signs, they can become overwhelmed, stressed, and even burned out. It is therefore important for leaders to decide early on how they wish to manage their workload and what boundaries they’ll establish between their work and personal life. This involves creating routines, boundaries, and productivity principles, including allocating sufficient time for planning, building relationships, and learning. To maintain their well-being, they need to prioritise self-care, including maintaining sufficient rest, regular exercise, and a healthy diet. Additionally, it is important to allocate and protect time for their favourite leisure activities and to be with their loved ones.
By helping new leaders become more aware of these common traps and providing them with a well-structured, supportive, and professional onboarding and transition experience, you can mitigate the risks of leadership failure during the first year, when the stressors and stakes are greatest.
If you would like to find out more about our transition support and coaching for new leaders, contact us at info@talentpredix.com
Talent and strengths-assessment have been gaining popularity in recent decades among people leaders, coaches, and consultants. This is hardly surprising given the potential benefits they offer organizations across virtually every stage of the talent lifecycle, from hiring and onboarding to improving employee performance and career development. In this blog, I will answer some of the key questions regarding this relatively new approach to understanding and getting the best from people.
What is the difference between a talent and strengths assessment?
Essentially, they are very similar in that they both measure underlying or innate qualities that energize people and enable them to do their best work. The main difference is that assessments describing themselves as “talent assessments” recognise an important distinction between talent and strengths that is often overlooked by people professionals and business psychologists. Talents aren’t equivalent to strengths as they require upskilling and experience to bring value to the organization and be perceived as strengths by others. The term “strength” implies a high level of competence, and competence requires skill, practice, perseverance, and the right conditions to develop. At TalentPredix, we therefore talk about strengths being the same as “optimized talents”.
How does this differ from personality tests?
Personality tests measure people’s personality types or traits and how these are likely to manifest as typical or normal patterns of behaviour in different aspects of their lives.
Most of these tests involve the test takers responding to a series of questions or adjectives based on the extent to which it applies to them. Some poorly designed tests have as few as a dozen questions or adjectives while more accurate ones are typically longer as they validate responses using similar questions that are asked in different ways.
From a scientific perspective, the most accurate and reliable personality tests today are typically based on the Big 5 Factor model of personality which shows that personality can basically be measured and described according to 5 key traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Other personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator sort people into broad personality types or preferences that people have for certain traits over others.
Are traditional personality tests still relevant for today’s world of work?
Many widely used personality profiles like MBTI and DISC sort people into broad personality types, categories, and even colours, e.g., extroverts versus introverts. The principal reason such assessments have gained widespread adoption and use in business is that they offer a quick and convenient way to describe people’s personality. Although the intention behind most of these tests is overwhelmingly positive, in practice their potential harmful effects have come under increasing scrutiny by the media in recent times. At the heart of the criticism of these assessments is the inconsistent and poor evidence that such tests reliably predict job performance, retention, progression, or any other vital outcomes important to business effectiveness. So, beyond providing a framework to categorize people and supporting their journeys of self-discovery, they offer little or no predictive value to enable organizations to make better hiring, development, and other talent decisions.
Because they classify people into oversimplified (and often imprecise) personality types and categories, it is also becoming increasingly clear that they can even be counterproductive to DEI aims and goals. In the modern world, it is widely accepted that it is crucial to create workplaces that value diversity and inclusion. This involves discovering and leveraging people’s individuality and uniqueness rather than labelling and pigeon-holing people.
What are the advantages of talent and strength-based assessments?
Consistent with DEI aims of building diverse and inclusive workplaces, this new generation of assessments focuses on understanding what’s unique and different about people’s talents, strengths, and behaviours. They capture not just people’s innate talents, but also the type of work that enables them to perform at their best. These assessments also recognize that even when people have similar talents and strengths, they will apply them in different ways, depending on their aspirations, background, and the way they interpret and respond to different situations.
How does potential fit in?
Potential is the capacity to grow the capabilities required to be successful in a bigger role, or one involving greater responsibility. However, potential is not just about having the innate qualities to succeed. It involves being highly motivated to work hard to build relevant skills and achieve one’s dreams and aspirations. Therefore, it is important for people professionals to help people discover their combined talents, career motivations and values, as greater awareness of all these will empower them to find career pathways that are engaging and meaningful for them, and where they can thrive and do their best work.
If you would like to try out TalentPredix™, our next-generation talent and strengths assessment system, contact us at info@talentpredix.com
Against the backdrop of a tougher economy and market for talent, one of the biggest challenges for today’s organizations is how to optimize the talents, skills, and contribution of their workforce. To stay competitive and sustain growth in these complex and fast-changing times, organizations need to find smarter ways to improve not just the performance, motivation, and commitment of their employees, but also their intrapreneurship, creativity, and adaptability.
Yet studies show that most employers are generally not good at optimizing people’s talents, strengths, and potential. There are various reasons for this, however, some of the more common ones include:
Below are 5 ways employers can make better use of the talents, strengths, and skills of their people.
Discover people’s unique talents and strengths
If you don’t know what qualities really energize your people, then trying to help them perform at their best becomes a matter of guesswork and trial and error. Managers often think they can work out what energizes individuals by observing what they’ve good at. Based on these subjective and biased observations, they make assumptions about what type of work people will enjoy and be good at. However, there is sometimes a big difference between what people have learned to do well and what they enjoy. One of my first managers assumed I was good at detail because I had learned to do this well. She loaded me up with detail, which quickly demotivated me and became overwhelming, as detailed work really drains my energy. Because so few people truly understand their talents and strengths, the best approach is to get them to complete an accurate and scientifically validated assessment profiler such as www.talentpredix.com . This will reduce bias and provide people with personalized insights about their talents and potential, including tasks and assignments that are likely to boost and deplete their energy.
Align skills development with people’s talents
For an innate talent to be fully optimized and be called a true “strength”, people need challenging learning and stretch opportunities to develop skills and behaviours in their areas of greatest talent. In many organizations, there is too much emphasis on identifying people’s strengths, without consideration of how these can be fully developed and optimized. This is tantamount to labelling a young musician with limited talent a virtuoso without them having put in the hard work to develop the skills and experience required to play at the mastery level.
In most organizations, there is understandably a lot of focus on upskilling and reskilling in order to future-proof the business. By aligning skills with people’s natural talents, we can help them achieve higher levels of performance in areas that are most enjoyable and important to them. This more targeted approach will yield much better returns than trying to upskill everyone or making sweeping assumptions about who will benefit the most from this upskilling based on prior experience. We have seen how badly the latter approach can backfire in companies that persist with the outdated approach of promoting high-performing technical specialists into leadership roles without any consideration of their innate talent for building, motivating and leading teams.
Invest in hiring and training managers to be great people developers
In her excellent book, Multipliers, Liz Wizeman talks about the importance of managers who can amplify the talents and capabilities of those around them through positive behaviours including inspiring and showing strong belief in them, encouragement, coaching, support, and feedback. Studies show that these “multipliers” enable people to deliver results that surpass expectations. But these leaders don’t just grow by themselves. Companies with an abundance of these types of leaders carefully select leaders with the innate talents and motivations to be strong, motivated leaders. They also invest time, effort and resources in training these leaders so they are highly skilled in how to effectively coach, develop, delegate and guide people to achieve their full potential. And because of the leadership “trickle down effect”, great leaders promote the growth of strong and motivated leaders beneath them. This investment is the key to unlocking enabling conditions in your organizations where people feel they are doing their best work and thriving.
Design jobs and career paths that people love
The current speed and intensity of change means that roles and career paths are changing faster than ever. Many job descriptions are outdated within weeks or months of a new hire joining the company. In this rapidly changing world of work, we need to be designing roles and flexible career paths that aren’t too rigid and allow ample scope for evolution, learning and future-proofing.
In response to these changes, more and more companies are organizing around teams and projects rather than along functional lines. They allocate people to multi-disciplinary teams that work on a project in an agile way and then disband once the project is accomplished. As well as promoting collaboration, learning and diverse problem-solving, this has the added benefit of accelerating cross-functional idea generation and creativity. Other progressive organisations provide people with stretch opportunities that challenge them beyond their day-to-day tasks and activities. This provides added variety, learning and social interaction, enriching the work experience for all involved.
Another growing trend is for organizations to introduce job crafting which enables some scope for employees to personalize their job to make it more engaging and meaningful. Job crafting can take a variety of forms, however, the most common include giving employees greater levels of autonomy and control over the type of work they do, how they perform that work and/or how to find the right balance between their work and personal life. Job crafting is of course not without challenges and is not appropriate for all roles, however, the growing trend for employees to have a greater say in their work and how it is designed is likely to accelerate in future.
Provide people with positive stretch assignments
Studies show that providing people with stretch assignments can be a big enabler in unleashing their potential. However, not all stretch assignments are effective. It is important to align stretch assignments with people’s goals, talents, and motivations, otherwise they can easily lead to demotivation and even burnout. Managers should also find out what support, coaching and guidance people need to take on the assignment and overcome any fears or limiting beliefs they may have. Assigning people stretch assignments and leaving them to “sink or swim” is not positive stretch. Taking such a tough and uncaring approach can result in people feeling overwhelmed, unsupported, and reluctant to take on similar assignments in future.
Companies are typically not good at identifying and communicating stretch assignments. This often results in the most interesting assignments being allocated to the same group of favoured people in the business. And research shows that the most coveted assignments are not allocated equally between men and women, with men often getting the lion’s share of these. To avoid these problems, it is important to publicize key stretch opportunities, train managers and leaders to identify and initiate more stretch conversations and promote a proactive, learner mindset across the workforce so people can identify stretch opportunities in line with their aspirations and talents.
To overcome the tsunami of challenges and succeed in today’s fast-changing and volatile world, organizations will need to employ more effective ways to identify, develop and optimize people’s talents and potential. Businesses that invest in best-in-class talent optimization strategies such as those described above will achieve better results and gain a clear competitive edge over rivals. They will also innovate faster and be better equipped to seize new opportunities that sustain their growth and success.
If you would like to try out TalentPredix™, our next-generation talent and strengths assessment system, contact us at info@talentpredix.com
Grit, a relatively new psychological concept offers fascinating insight into why some people succeed in their careers while others fail to achieve their full potential.
Angela Duckworth, a leading author and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania defines Grit as the capacity to sustain both effort and interest in projects or tasks that take months or longer to complete. It is essentially a combination of perseverance and passion. The latter can best be defined as a “fire in the belly”, or positive energy to achieve and outperform against one’s goals.
Duckworth has found that people who are high in Grit don’t deviate from their goals, even in the absence of positive feedback and in the face of adversity. Although research on the concept is still in its early stages and far from conclusive, Grit appears to be positively related to success in many spheres of life and has been linked to important outcomes such as improved performance, career success, learning motivation, commitment and resilience.
So how can companies incorporate this promising new concept into their people management practices? Below are 3 ideas to get you started:
Assess for strengths and motivations when hiring people
The mantra “hire for attitude as well as skill” is widely espoused, yet few recruiters know how to translate this into practical action during the hiring process. One of the ways you can do this is by using strengths interviews and strengths assessments to measure not only the required skills and experience for the role, but also the person’s strengths, motivations, and values. A good alignment between these softer human factors and the needs of the role, as well as the work culture, will enable you to recruit people who are motivated to go way beyond the minimum requirements of the role. When people’s strengths, motivations and values fit the job and company well, they are far more likely to deliver excellence, embrace learning opportunities and stay longer with your organization.
Stretch people in areas they enjoy most
To develop higher levels of grit, ensure your people are provided with stretch opportunities that push them beyond their comfort zone. However, ensure this stretch is positive in nature. Positive stretch involves discovering a person’s underlying talents and strengths, then challenging them to take these to the next level by developing skills, experience, and flexibility in the way they apply these. It is important to provide coaching, support and feedback when encouraging people to stretch their strengths to maintain high levels of energy and avoid negative stress, panic and burnout.
Promote a growth mindset and learning culture
Perseverance involves working hard to achieve goals and sticking with a task even in the face of immense pressure and setbacks. There are different factors that accelerate perseverance, but one of the most important appears to be the extent to which people are encouraged to learn from setbacks and take ownership for their own learning. People with a growth-oriented mindset are better learners and demonstrate greater agility in adjusting to changes and setbacks than those who don’t believe they can learn new skills and abilities required for success.
Organizations can encourage growth mindsets by creating a supportive environment where failure is seen as part and parcel of the learning process and reasonable mistakes are tolerated. They can also ensure regular feedback and coaching through engaging performance dialogues and regular manager and co-worker feedback channels to empower people to learn, grow and improve their performance.
It is also important to create a work culture characterized by high levels of interpersonal connection and collaborative learning. By building strong support networks (both face-to-face and virtual) such as collaborative platforms and tools, hangouts, brainstorming/brainwriting sessions and socials, organizations will provide people with greater opportunities to solve challenges collaboratively, experiment and deliver solutions that multiply business results.
Further Reading:
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, 2016, Angela Duckworth. London: Penguin
If you would like to find out more about our talent coaching solutions, contact us at info@talentpredix.com
The strengths-based approach to people management has been around for around 25 years, although many of the central principles and ideas were first introduced by management gurus like Peter Drucker and Dr Bernard Haldane decades before this. The central premise is that focusing on strengths is a more powerful way of accelerating performance, learning and engagement in organizations because it unlocks people’s intrinsic motivation, helping them achieve excellence in areas more aligned with their natural strengths and personality.
Today, strengths-based approaches are one of the fastest-growing trends in people management and for good reason as research shows they can yield significant improvements in sales, profitability, retention and engagement. A strengths-based approach to performance and feedback conversations is also more likely to generate more positive behaviours and results compared to a traditional weakness-based approach.
Yet, one of the biggest mistakes companies make when bringing in this approach is to overlook or downplay people’s weaker areas. This is likely to significantly undermine the value of the approach and result in scepticism among senior leaders and decision-makers, especially given the negativity bias that has dominated much of our approach to people management in the past.
Problems that arise when organizations focus only on people’s strengths
Various problems can arise for both the individual and company when there is a myopic focus on strengths without any consideration of weaknesses. Some of these include:
Reducing weaknesses and performance limiters
Effective development is very much about balancing two interdependent dualities – optimising strengths and reducing the effect of performance limiters, including weaknesses and overused talents and strengths.
Performance limiters are things that can get in the way of people achieving their goals. There are four main types: In Excess or overused talents and strengths; limiting weaknesses, self-limiting beliefs and fears and external blockers.
Because we all have limited time to invest in our personal development, we typically recommend an 80-20 rule of thumb with 80% of this time focused on optimizing strengths and 20% on tackling performance limiters. However, this may vary from person to person depending on their experience, competence, and the extent to which their limiters are undermining their results and/or relationships.
The strengths approach offers tremendous potential and it appears that we have now reached a ‘tipping point’ where the majority of leading organizations are using this approach to people and talent management. However, a sole focus on discovering and optimizing people’s strengths will not yield sustainable improvements in engagement and performance. To be effective, a strengths-based people strategy needs to also help people find innovative and powerful ways to reduce their weaker areas and performance limiters, especially when these are undermining the performance and growth of the person, team and/or company.
For more details on how to design and implement an effective strengths-based people strategy that delivers exceptional results, contact us at info@talentpredix.com
Positive leaders understand the importance of creating conditions where individuals and team can do their best work and achieve their full potential. They see people not as resources or assets, but as key value-multipliers of the business.
They understand the importance of meeting 4 key needs of employees so that they can thrive at work. Starting at the base of the pyramid below, let’s look at each in turn:
People require conditions where they feel safe, not just physically, but also psychologically. This means that they should feel the company cares about them and will minimize the risks of any harm to them, including emotional and mental suffering. The concept of psychological safety is becoming more popular now than when it was first coined in the 90s due to increased work pressures and the dizzying pace of change.
Having a workplace that is psychologically safe means that people feel able to show up at work every day without being embarrassed, marginalized, bullied, or unfairly disciplined. However, it also means that people are free to express their thoughts and emotions at work without worrying that they will be harshly judged or face other adverse consequences. People want to feel that they can count on their leader to look out for them and provide support, especially when tough problems arise that overwhelm them and lead to significant distress.
Steps leaders can take:
Everyone has a deep desire for belonging, at work and outside. They want to feel they are a valued part of their community or ‘tribe’, regardless of their background or differences. Belonging goes beyond acceptance and inclusion of diverse people, personalities, and perspectives. It involves giving people a voice in how their work is accomplished and in shaping the future of the team and organization.
Steps leaders can take:
Most people have a deep drive for achievement and success. They want to do well and achieve their goals and personal development aspirations. They want to feel they are empowered to act and supported to be at their best.
Steps leaders can take:
People have an innate desire to learn and realize their full potential. They want to grow both personally and professionally.
Steps leaders can take:
Provided the company has a well-defined purpose and strategy, peak performance comes about when leaders hire talented people and provide them with the right conditions where they can do their best work while at the same time fulfilling their key needs. Positive leaders understand the importance of creating a climate where people can thrive at work by taking practical steps to improve their sense of safety, belonging, achievement and growth.
For more details on how to design and implement an effective people strategy that delivers thriving workplaces, contact us at info@talentpredix.com
Organizations are increasingly helping their employees discover, develop, and deploy their talent and strengths more effectively. This approach is driving greater performance, motivation, teamwork, and retention. It also marks a significant shift from the traditional focus on fixing weaknesses to a more positive, strengths-based mindset. However, simply identifying and using talent and strengths isn’t enough. When overused, even the best talents and strengths can backfire, leading to unintended consequences or failure.
Overused talent and strengths refer to those that are applied excessively, resulting in negative outcomes. This occurs when a talent or strength, instead of being an asset, turns into a weakness. Overused talents can damage relationships, harm careers, and lead to poor performance. Studies show that more people experience career derailment due to overused talents than obvious weaknesses. For instance, my Boldness talent has been key to my career success, but early on, I was too eager to challenge the status quo without considering the audience. This led to perceptions of being overpowering—a classic case of overused talent.
Several factors can lead to the overuse of talent and strengths, including:
Understanding these triggers helps individuals become more conscious of how to use their talent and strengths more effectively.
Raising awareness of overused talent and strengths brings several benefits:
The first step in managing overused talent and strengths is raising awareness. We recommend using a scientifically validated talent assessment like TalentPredix™, which helps individuals pinpoint the specific behaviours limiting their performance. With this insight, they can use their talent and strengths more selectively and effectively. Learn more about the science behind talent assessments here.
At TalentPredix™, we believe that for talent to be fully optimized, individuals must learn to adapt their talents across different situations. This is expressed as:
Optimized Talent = f (Talent X Skills X Adaptability)
We help employees develop strategies to match their talents to the situation’s needs. Some of these strategies include:
To unleash the full potential of your people and help them achieve their goals, it’s essential they understand how to apply their talent and strengths effectively across different situations. They also need to actively mitigate the effects of overused talents. With this holistic awareness, they can use their talents in a more conscious, careful, and competent way, leading to thriving careers and exceptional results.
For more insights on managing talent and strengths, check out this article. Learn more about TalentPredix™ and how to tackle overused talents and strengths by clicking here.
Peter Drucker, often referred to as the “father of modern management”, claimed it is extremely difficult to measure potential. This is particularly true in the fast-changing world we now find ourselves in. However, there are numerous advantages to spotting and developing high potential leaders. Some of these include a stronger talent pipeline, filling more key positions with internal hires, better retention and improved progression of minorities and underrepresented groups. So, what exactly is potential, and can it be accurately assessed?
Leadership potential is the future performance a person is likely to achieve in a leadership role. It is a prediction of their future performance trajectory. And therein lies the major challenge – a person’s potential is dependent on a wide range of internal and external factors so measuring it is extremely difficult and prone to error. For example, factors such as career motivations, values, life changes, the presence of a mentor or sponsor, and culture fit can significantly impact a person’s potential to succeed in a leadership role.
Most organizations use very crude and unscientific methods to spot and assess leadership potential. Some still place a disproportionally high emphasis on educational factors, favouring those from top universities or candidates with advanced business degrees when looking to hire new leaders or promote high potentials into leadership roles. In addition to the obvious biases that occur from such strategies, educational attainment and qualifications alone are generally unreliable predictors of leadership potential. They focus too narrowly on analytical intelligence and don’t consider other abilities that are better predictors of leadership success such as adaptability, perseverance, social and emotional intelligence and creative problem-solving. Other organizations promote their best technical and functional experts into leadership roles. However, there is a big difference between the abilities, behaviours, and motivations of technical and functional experts and those required to be an effective leader. As a result, this strategy often results in costly failures, including demoralised teams, unwanted turnover of talented individual contributors and performance shortfalls.
Many organizations have adopted the well-known “9-Box Grid” to allocate talent into categories based on managers’ evaluations of performance and potential. However, many organizations never spend time defining what is meant by “potential” so measurement remains highly subjective and prone to all types of biases. Many companies also don’t stretch and develop people once they’ve been assigned a “high potential” rating. Therefore, this exercise never moves beyond a subjective rating process and does little to help the business spot, develop and retain talent. Another problem that often arises is that due to a lack of scrutiny and calibration of senior leaders’ ratings by Human Resources, the process does little to challenge old assumptions and stereotypes about what makes a good leader in the company. This can undermine opportunities to consider new and emerging leadership talents and qualities that are vital in the new world of work. It can also obstruct the progress of under-represented and minority groups into key leadership roles.
Organizations can avoid some of these problems by putting in place a more scientific and objective process for assessing leadership potential based on the following 4 principles:
Measure their performance track record
Many senior executives still favour traditional leadership traits like assertion, charisma and an outgoing style when looking for future leaders. However, there is little evidence that these characteristics are associated with good leadership, particularly in today’s fast-changing and complex world. In fact, they can lead to the appointment of narcissistic, self-serving and autocratic leaders who achieve short-term results at the expense of long-term sustainable growth and development of key talent.
A far more effective approach is to measure the ability of high-potential managers and leaders to positively influence and coach others, their learning agility, and their skill in building high-performing teams that deliver great results. It is often the humble and curious grafters who show a real talent for building teams and getting the best out of others that are far more effective in leadership roles.
To ensure a more objective measurement of current performance in these areas, companies should identify and regularly assess softer leadership behaviours as well as harder measures of performance. They should also provide opportunities for top leaders to come together at least twice a year to systematically evaluate the potential of high-potential candidates using a rigorous process to discuss and calibrate evaluations. To ensure this is a fair and objective process, we strongly recommend it is facilitated by a trained HR or external facilitator.
Apply work samples to supplement interviews and traditional tests
Despite exaggerated claims from many consultants and business psychologists, commonly used assessment methods (including personality and aptitude tests) are not a panacea as they are far less accurate in predicting future potential than in predicting performance in the short term.
However, research provides promising findings that personality factors like high conscientiousness, openness to learning, resilience and emotional self-regulation do predict better leadership performance. Similarly, people who can think more analytically, creatively, and strategically often perform better as leaders. Therefore, well-established personality and aptitude tests should remain an important part of our toolkit to measure the potential of future leaders as they add incremental validity to objective, well-structured interviews.
To strengthen measurement accuracy, companies should go beyond traditional tests and structured interviews, using well-designed work samples and simulations. As a result of advancements in technology (including machine learning and gamification) and behavioural sciences, the solutions on offer have never been greater. More commonly used work samples include situational judgement tests, role plays, analysis exercises, scenario challenges and strategy discussions. All these will provide you with additional insights on how future leaders are likely to handle the typical challenges and dilemmas of a leadership role.
Give them stretch assignments
This is one of the best ways to test potential as it provides a high potential leader/emerging leader with an opportunity to assume responsibility for challenging leadership tasks on a trial basis to see how they perform under pressure. Despite the benefits of this approach, it is often underutilized or poorly implemented. Common implementation problems include risk-averse cultures and lack of adequate delegation, inadequate coaching and mentoring and poor design and application of criteria to evaluate performance resulting in subjectivity and unconscious bias.
Stretch projects can be team-based or individual. We typically recommend the former as these enable potential leaders to collaborate with team members and other stakeholders to overcome real business dilemmas and challenges. This enables HR and senior leaders to evaluate high potentials’ teamwork, joint problem solving, influencing and emotional intelligence, as well as their individual contribution.
Peer feedback
Although there is mixed evidence about the effectiveness of multi-rater feedback surveys, a robust peer feedback approach should be considered in the mix of approaches used by companies to assess potential for leadership roles. Such surveys also improve leaders’ self-awareness and self-improvement by providing valuable feedback about their strengths, potential weaker areas and ‘blind spots’ that might derail their progress. If you decide to use a multi-rater or 360-degree survey, we strongly recommend this is designed by behavioural scientists who can ensure it is well-constructed and measures behaviours that are relevant to success in leadership roles within your company.
It is extremely tough to accurately measure the potential of future leaders and any consultant who claims otherwise is misleading you. However, this does not mean that it isn’t worth the investment to bring more rigour and science to the discovery and development of your future leaders. By combining some of the techniques outlined above, you can ensure you improve the accuracy and consistency of your assessments while at the same time providing leaders/future leaders with meaningful development opportunities.
For more details on how to design and implement an effective people strategy to assess leadership, contact us at info@talentpredix.com
Most of us understand the value of personal reflection and renewal moving into a new year. Like me, I’m sure everyone hopes this year will mark the end of the pandemic stage of Covid so we can get back to whatever the new normal looks like. Although there are many factors like Covid that we can’t control, what we can control is the way we manage our energy and psychological health in response to setbacks and struggles we encounter, including the choices we make and the type of mindset we adopt.
Many of you will have got into the habit of setting goals and resolutions at the start of each year. However, most people don’t apply the same discipline when it comes to managing their energy and psychological health. Yet, these are arguably the most important drivers of our long-term happiness and success. Managing our energy and psychological health provides the positive ‘fuel’ to help us achieve our career and life goals. It can also make us more resilient, adaptable, optimistic, and self-confident.
Here are 7 keys to help improve your emotional and psychological health for the coming year and set you up for your best year yet.
1. Discover your purpose and stick to it
People who discover their purpose and stay true to it are far more likely to be committed and engaged at work. They find deeper meaning in their work and have a clearer vision of what they want to achieve. This instills a deep sense of commitment and enables them to focus their skills and talents on what they are most passionate about. Studies show that when people have a clear and meaningful purpose and apply their natural talents to work towards this, they are far more likely to enjoy work, perform better and achieve greater career success.
2. Master your mindset
All of us will experience setbacks and difficulties during the year, although the nature and emotional intensity of these will vary significantly. Never allow yourself to become a victim of negative thinking and adverse circumstances. If you do, you’ll soon enter a vicious cycle of low self-confidence, pessimism, helplessness, and eventually depression. Remember that you are free to choose your mindset and how you respond to any situation, no matter how difficult.
Even in the darkest moments when nothing seems to be going right, we have the power to find a positive way forward and not to be defined by setbacks, mistakes and adverse circumstances. We can all learn from the great wisdom of Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, who pointed out in his bestselling book, Man’s Search for Meaning:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
3. Challenge your inner critic
All of us have an inner critic, even the most outwardly confident and successful celebrities, leaders, and entrepreneurs. But some learn to control these inner gremlins effectively while others find themselves overwhelmed by them.
Don’t let your inner critic – limiting voices of self-doubt and fear – get the better of you. Listen carefully and write down the negative, limiting things you say to yourself. Treat these as if they were being said by an external person who is not fair, supportive, or rational. Challenge and question these points as if you were disputing something someone has said which is unfair or unjustified. Reframe these negative statements as positive, empowering ones. Write down these positive statements and look at them every day before work and whenever you are experiencing episodes of self-doubt or anxiety. Over time, your negative narratives will be replaced by positive ones.
4. Choose to spend time with energy multipliers
Research indicates that people’s emotions and mindsets are contagious. Spending time with people who are upbeat, resilient, and solutions-oriented will provide you with a positive and supportive network. Over time, this will multiply your positive energy, growth, and effectiveness, leading to greater happiness, wellbeing and performance.
On the other hand, if you hang out mainly with negative, ‘glass half empty’ people who sap your energy and add no value then it’s likely you’ll develop a negative outlook to work and life. It’s best not to get sucked into this vortex of negativity unless you want to spend all your time struggling through life.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should avoid friends and co-workers who have temporary setbacks and difficulties that cause them to experience inevitable emotional lows and difficulties. Always stick by these people and show compassion, empathy, and support to help them through their difficult patch. This builds trust, openness, and emotional closeness, all of which are pre-requisites for meaningful, satisfying and emotionally mature relationships.
5. Declutter
Don’t leave decluttering to the springtime. Decluttering your house and office at the start of each new year enables you to simplify your life. It will leave you feeling invigorated, unburdened, and satisfied. Studies show it can also boost your self-esteem, focus and quality of thinking. Tidying enables you to get rid of unnecessary possessions that don’t add value to your life as well as those that are associated with unhappy memories from the past. Gifting these items to a charity or person who needs them more than you will raise your spirits, as research shows that people derive happiness and joy by helping others. However, make sure you don’t go overboard and throw away possessions that have deep sentimental meaning and attachment to you, as getting rid of these might undermine rather than improve your emotional wellbeing.
6. Focus on what’s going well
Many people keep themselves so busy at work and home that they don’t take time to slow down and notice the good things happening in their life and around them. For example, we often fail to spot our co-workers doing great work or a friend or partner making a special effort on our behalf. Many even fail to notice and celebrate their own learning, progress, and professional achievements. They simply move on to the next thing and lose a valuable opportunity to enjoy the scenic ‘lookout points’ in their relentless quest to conquer the next peak. Take time to notice and be grateful for these special moments, however small, as this will enhance your wellbeing as well as the happiness of those around you.
7. Ditch negative news and social media
Put yourself on a news and social media fast for a few weeks or become more selective about the types of media you consume. A lot of our traditional and online media pedal primarily negative news that gives rise to unnecessary anxiety, concerns, and worries, undermining our emotional wellbeing. The reason of course is simple – negative stories generally sell better than positive ones.
Similarly, many social media platforms spread negative news, fake news and extreme views and opinions. This negatively biased content impacts our perspective about what is real and heightens our perceived threat level towards the world around us. Some platforms also encourage unhealthy peer-group comparisons that leave people feeling they are inferior, unsuccessful, or missing out. Taking a break from this negativity and refocusing your time on positive experiences (e.g., reading, learning a new skill or starting a new hobby) and people will enable you to build a positive and healthy mindset.
Finally, remember that a happy life also requires a healthy diet and regular exercise so don’t forget to include these in your list of goals for 2022. Wishing you all a happy, successful, and healthy 2022.