It Takes Two to Tango

December 6, 2011 under Uncategorized

As the adage goes, it takes two to tango – you have to know your values, and the company needs to hire those whose values align with their mission and culture.

 

Values. What are your values? Like most professionals, I never really thought much about my values in the early years of my career. However, I spent most of my 20′s exploring them by putting myself in different roles and industries. I really didn’t understand what my motivations were in those positions because it’s hard to know yourself when the majority of your childhood (like most others) was spent living someone else’s values (parents, teachers, mentors, etc.).

 

Just as Nate Smith, CEO of iPath, said at the Pepperdine’s University SEER Symposium in November 2011, “It took sometime to find out what my values are – not those of my mentors, parents, ect. – things that are important to me”. Having this self knowledge of your internal values, what you think is important to invest your time in is critical to your performance and achievements.

 

Nate went on to describe the pillars that make up his values. From the times he was in the Navy Seals, prior to becoming the CEO of iPath, he learned that he was passionate about  “my service, serving my county,” and the “unwavering commitment to [our] mission in common with my colleagues.” These ideals drive his executive commitment to invest in iPath.

 

Opportunities will come up, but does it resonate with your values?

 

Similarly, when my friend who was previously the Business Development Manager for Cypress Semiconductor was on the market for a change from her employer, she had been extremely unsatisfied with her job for quite sometime. For a couple of years, the job ate into her spirit and also affected her personal relationships. While she still carried on with her work, she quickly moved to disengagement where long vacations were her escape from the company.

 

When she finally found a company in the same industry, she quickly learned why it would be a perfect fit. In her current role as the European Marketing Manager for an international semiconductor company, the company’s values and culture resonate with her own values and ideas of how a company should act and be.

 

For example, one key distinction between the two companies for my friend was that Cypress was “very controlled by process”, whereas the new company “gives people more freedom to get things done, more time for people to do it their own way”. For my friend, she values having a balance between structure and freedom, and the humanity aspects in the company’s engagements that Cypress did not seem to provide. I remembered her relaying how much she’s enamored by the people, the culture, and the way this new company work with their clients and stakeholders.

 

Although she is more than qualified to do her current job and even considered the lateral move to be a demotion career status, as well as a decrease in salary – she couldn’t be more happier with her decision to join her new company.

 

Also as a speaker at the SEER Symposium was Casey Sheahan, CEO of Patagonia, to add, “Operating from your most authentic self is a very power way to operate.” Donned in casual wear, rather than a business suit, he spoke about the main value of his company: create a sustainable world. Casey Sheahan is like an extension of the founder Yvon Chouinard, referencing Indian spiritual beliefs and Buddhism sutras, where his presentations about his company’s business model completely resonated with his own values. Take for example the Common Initiative Patagonia is spearheading:

 

 

How many other companies do you know that encourages you to buy less of what they sell?

 

These are the ideals that define the workforce today. Our values are the foundation for the choices and commitment we make. Sooner or later, we must catch up to our values and live them out.

 

What does this mean for professionals? Values are key drivers of our work. Understanding them and finding work opportunities that shares your value will help accelerate you on a path of career satisfaction and achievement.

 

For companies, understanding that the current workforce is privileged to be driven by values is crucial to hiring effectively to deliver its promise to its customers.

Share
comments: 0 » tags: , , , ,

What is Human Capital?

November 29, 2011 under Uncategorized

“Human capital” is an atypical combination of words and aren’t often used in normal conversations.

 

So, I posted the exact question on LinkedIn in the Human Capital Institute Group to get thoughts from people who study, advance, and develop this topic in their work.

 

Gary S. Becker, the 1992 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, is considered the founding father of the topic. His book by the same name, Human Capital, written in 1964 put the idea of human capital on the map. Since then, his research  has spawned an intellectual debate, on what was initially a controversial concept, as the Modern Economy becomes increasingly a human capital based economy.

 

Capital is the asset that yields income and other useful outputs over long periods of time. In The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics article, “Human Capital,” Becker said, “The asset of the individual is called human capital because people cannot be separated from their knowledge, skills, health, or values in the way they can be separated from their financial and physical assets.” Thus, human capital is the essence of the individual  – which are the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial well-fare and strength of the individual.  Furthermore, “Education, training, and health are the most important investments in human capital.”

 

Below are suggestions to what human capital means, as they are understood by others in the LinkedIn discussion thread:

 

The knowledge and capabilities of the people in the organization. – Matt Kwiatkoski

 

Human capital is the driving force behind an enterprise and as a force comprises both mass and acceleration. Mass relates to the depth of full-human engagement at the heart, head and hands level. It is so much more than skills, it is passion and clear critical thinking too. – Bob Gibbon

 

Human Capital is the “source of revenue generation” for most organisations today. – Gail Sturgess

 

HC consists simply of the people in an organization that add value through innovation, creativity, focus and execution.  – Jeanne Kerr

 

Essentially, human capital, when unleashed and aligned with an entity’s mission, is the organization’s indomitable advantage.

 

What do you think human capital means?

Share
comments: 0 » tags: , ,

Adapt Your Leadership Approach to the Situation

November 22, 2011 under Uncategorized

Leading people in any type of organization is not for the faint of heart. Too often managers hire people and expect them to know what to do but end up being upset because things don’t get done the way managers think they should be done. Often times, the conflict arise from gaps in communications, and if not resolved, it will lead to distrust, alienation, and incorrect assumptions (usually negative).

 

How should managers lead their people? While there are multitude of literature on leadership development found online and business publications, I have always been a fan of Ken Blanchard‘s situational leadership theory.

 

The situational leadership model is based on providing direction and support according to the task at hand and the situation of the individual assigned to that task. It’s about adapting the manager’s leadership style to the individual team member.

 

The situational leadership model has two steps: (1) identify the situation and (2) apply either support or direction leadership behavior based on the situation.

 

 

When a manager assigns responsibilities to a team member, there are four possible situations and corresponding leadership behaviors:

 

1ST STEP – Identify the Individual  Situation

  1. Low competence & high commitment (D1)
  1. Low to some competence & low commitment (D2)
  1. Moderate to high competence & variable commitment (D3)
  2. High competence &high commitment (D4)

2ND STEP – Apply Directive & Supportive Leadership Behavior

  1. High directions & low support (S1)
  2. High direction & high support (S2)
  3. Low direction & high support (S3)
  4. Low direction & low support (S4)

 

 

 

Below is a description of each situation and applicable leadership behavior:

  1. Low Competence, High Commitment (D1) Situation —-> High Directions, Low Support (S1) Behavior

 

The individual starting has low competence and does not know what to do, but she is eager, enthusiastic, and highly motivated to begin. She does not need motivations or too much cheerleading. What she needs is directions. She’ll use words like “Tell me what to do.” A leader in this situation must not waster energy in giving this team member kudos, but give her the “how-to” specific instructions. Tell her what to do – she’s asking for it. She is ready to soak in everything and does not mind being told what to do. Because she is eager and her commitment is high, if she first stumbles with her new tasks, she will not likely be deterred.

 

  1. Low to Some Competence, Low Commitment (D2) Situation —-> High Directions, High Support (S2) Behavior

 

Every task has its learning curve, so although the team member started out enthusiastic and highly motivated, the competence is still undetermined. After some time, her competence is making slight progress but it is rather low. This is a critical phase as the team member can drop drastically in her commitment, as she struggles in her learning of the new set of skills.

 

Here, she requires much support and cheering with continuous specific instructions to really hone down the skills.

 

If she doesn’t increase her competence to her own expectations and get out of this phase, she is likely to give up and forfeit any commitment she might still have. She will need extra external motivations.

 

If the team member does not show promising results or progress towards D3 after a reasonable amount of time, this is where the leader must have to release her from her responsibilities. If not, her negative attitude will inflict onto other team members and pull everyone down with her.

 

  1. Moderate to High Competence, Variable Commitment (D3) Situation —-> Low Directions, High Support (S3) Behavior

 

Once the team member pushes through D2, she has made significant progress with her competency that her commitment is renewed, but is still rather shaky. Although she might not be consistent with her results, she no longer needs directions from the leader. She knows what to do, so it’s only a matter of time that her skills are second nature and she produces consistent results. She has more good days than bad days.

 

Her results may direct her commitment. If she does well one day, she’s highly enthusiastic and committed. If she does poorly the next day, she’s down and questions her competence.

 

During D3, the team member needs support – lots of kudos. If the leader views her poor results as her not knowing how to do her task, he will only undermine her variable competence. She does not need directions, but greater level of support. Her attitude will drive her results. If a leader focuses on building her morale and increase her confidence, regardless of her results, she will produce consistent competency.

 

 

  1. High Competence, High Commitment Situation —-> Low Directions, Low Support (S4) Behavior

 

At this stage, the team member owns her task – she knows her skills, knows what to do and she excels at it. If she does falter, it is rare. And when she does falter in her results, she knows what happened, and does not need to be reminded of how to do her job. If a leader instructs her, he will likely insult her skills.

 

Also at D4, the team member is highly committed. She does not need to be coddled like a newbie, as she’s proven herself to be a pro in her task.

 

The manager can count on this team member to be a counter-partner on the same level, even without the title. It is at this level that the manager has replicated a “mini-me” and productivity within the organization can multiply.

 

Share
comments: 0 » tags:

How the Matrix Management Enhances Employee Engagement

November 16, 2011 under Uncategorized

Creative agencies typically do project-based work where team members need to be agile and versatile in their roles and capacity. And, young talent plays an important role as they bring knowledge of latest trends in  media and consumer engagements.  The Regan Group (TRG) is a great example of a company that engages their young talent to drive business innovation.  So I was excited when my friend Chris Denson of Genius Effect Media Group, who is also Director of Innovation at TRG, connected me to Julie Thorne, VP of Marketing at TRG.

 

As I learned more about TRG, there was one main thing about their culture that was very telling of how employees are engaged at the company: the Matrix Management.

 

The Regan Group is a full service marketing agency that delivers consumer engagements for its clients through services such as sweepstakes, social media integration, special events, strategic alliances, and others. With a 20 year history in the making that started with Ms. Patti Regan, the company has linked up with the likes of Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst, Nickelodeon, and Macy as clients.

 

Their website boasts a fresh model of engagement called the Matrix Management. “We employ a Matrix Management approach to our workday, allowing everyone to take part in multiple projects, carry different levels of responsibility and push themselves and their peers to realize their full potential as marketers,” the website says. “The approach takes the hierarchy out on certain projects and creates a very entrepreneurial culture for the 20 year old company, by giving everyone a chance to take the lead,” Chris shared.

 

Speaking to Julie, who joined TRG full-time six years ago as a creative mind, but is now the strategist for the company, she seemed to revel in this Matrix Management. At any one time, “they [staff] could be reporting to multiple people in 6 to 8 projects. In the Matrix Management, they could be leading a project, and be reporting to someone else in other projects.” It’s true, while Julie wears the title of VP and has her own creative projects to lead, she also reports to other team members her junior on separate projects that they lead.

 

“TRG is very transparent;  projects are pushed through pipelines and go through a strategic process in placing talent on those projects,” confirmed Chris.

 

While it can seem chaotic and fitting for the age of ADD with this kind of freedom, “You don’t put people in positions to fail. TRG creates a system where people can be successful,” he added.  “Everyone gets involved from the beginning as they’re pulled in to brainstorm. It empowers people.” Even interns take a piece of a half a million dollar project to work on, to learn to share the load of responsibility.

 

The way TRG ensures that their staff, particularly young employees who want experience and to build up a career, are successful in representing clients, is to expose everyone to everything (from copy writing to sweepstakes) aside from their area of expertise, from day one. And because TRG promotes from within, the Matrix Management model prepares interns to progress into coordinators, manager, and to VP.

 

“We give you the know how to do stuff. You know how to do everything after working with The Regan Group.” echoed Julie. And some people grow, to leave, and that’s fine too.  “We love grooming young talent.” As an asset to TRG, 20-somethings are typically connected to everything that’s current in media, which helps TRG infuse innovative solutions in their services for more conservative clients.

 

How do you overcome what most people fear – of entrusting responsibility to young and inexperienced talent? “Obviously we have to have trust and balance (teaching, training, and understanding) and when they begin to bring in money for the company after (the teaching, training) it becomes very interesting – when they’ve been working on their projects and have their own clients,” said Julie.

 

The matrix style serves TRG’s project-based operations and allows the company to pick up more projects than another 20-staff team could because TRG employees are fully engaged when they’re not restricted by their titles. “Such collaboration and team cohesion have proven to be incredibly beneficial to our clients and business partners, and it makes for a fun, spirited and rewarding career at The Regan Group.” Sounds like a win-win formula for employee engagement.

Share
comments: 0 » tags: , , , ,

How Team TAG & Young Talents Are Poised for Growth

November 10, 2011 under Uncategorized

In a highly competitive economy, talent acquisition and management are crucial to business growth and sustainability. As companies are faced with a dispersed workforce that lack the skills they need for the next stage of growth, human capital becomes increasingly vital for businesses to take advantage of emerging opportunities. The recovering and changing economy demands talent strategies that include developing the next generation of leaders.

 

Team TAG Talent Model

Team TAG (TAG), an outsourced sales and consulting firm that represents giant clients such as Quill (a subsidiary of Staples), Verizon, & ATT, drives on developing leaders out of young talents. Building its human capacity is the essence of TAG. The company offers a management training program and coaching as part of its business model, where young entrepreneurs develop real life business acumen, including recruiting, leadership, team building, coaching, & sales skills. The program also develops one’s work ethics, tenacity, and attitude. It’s not the traditional MBA where you take out a student loan & graduate with a business degree, but rather through sweat equity (may repel those who’s allergic to hard work or have a sense of entitlement), you graduate with a turn key business and the human & financial capital to fund your new company, adding to the growth of TAG.

 

Many lessons can be derived from this model, and how TAG leverages young talent. Below is a summary of my conversation with Jaime Hepp, president and owner of TAG. Jaime started the business with a single office & a handful of sales representatives 13 years ago, and is now at 16 offices, overseeing 300 sales representatives, with an annual revenue of $10 million.  I previously worked with Jaime under his tutelage. He remains a valuable business leader and mentor in my professional growth.

 

Q: How does young talent play a role in your business growth?

Young talents don’t have to be untrained before you can train them. They’re sort of like a brand new computer (where you don’t need to uninstall major software programs before you install the program you want & need).

They are empowered quickly. We encourage them when they’re brand new. We tell them, “We’re not a perfect business so we want to hear your voice when you start. If you have ideas, share them.” It allows the business to change rapidly with the times.

 

Q: Can you give a specific example?

I’ve got the perfect example. As a sales company representing various clients, we sell a lot of stuff. We want to get into other markets so we surveyed 250 leaders and asked them what would they sell if they could sell anything.

Our talent pool consists of 22-28 year olds. The overwhelming #1 answer was green energy (solar & wind energy). This is what this generation is passionate about. So since February 2011, we’re on the verge of starting our own green business. Wouldn’t that match our recruiting & training if the new hires were also the sellers of the product they’re passionate about? Definitely.

 

Q: How do you, as a business leader, create an environment that unleashes human potential among young talent?

From Stephen Covey, we focus on developing the whole person in a whole position, in the four major human needs: physical, mental, social, and spiritual. They get a ridiculous amount of opportunities to enhance physically (weekly basketball games), mentally (book clubs), socially (weekly team nights), & spiritually (charity work in the community).

Professional growth & promotions are linked to personal growth (you become more valuable). Focus on being a better person and your productivity takes care of itself.

 

Q: What are 3 key elements of talent that are important to build that drive your business?

Character, confidence, and charisma.

 

Q: How do you build those capacities?

Character will grow from personal growth. Confidence comes from helping people win. The more they win, the more confidence rises. Charisma – well, that they either have it or they don’t. In sales, if they aren’t a people person, it’s too much of an uphill battle.

 

Q: What is your impression of the role of young people in today’s business environment?

They really want to enjoy what they do, they don’t want to be drones. Companies that want to retain talent must look at offering more than just compensation, because today’s young talents look for other things outside of money compensation.

 

 

The key takeaway is that although TAG’s main business is an outsourced sales company for its clients, the firm’s other business is really in coaching and building the human capital of its young talent. Integrating mentoring and development, performance-based promotions and compensations leverage the capacity of the talent pool to drive business growth. As a result, TAG is well positioned for future success.

 

Share
comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , ,

Why CSR Improves Bottom Lines & Recruits Top Talent

November 1, 2011 under Uncategorized

Last week, I attended Pepperdine’s Graduate School in Education and Psychology’s Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series. The topic on the panel’s table was how to improve bottom lines through corporate and social responsibility (CSR).

 

The panels included Rick Crandall, Director of Sustainability, Southern California Division Albertsons,  Zafar Brooks of Hyundai Motor America, as Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity, Inclusion, and Jay Bell, Senior VP of TELACU, discussed at length about the meaning of CSR: why it’s important, governance relating to CSR, and ROI and impact of such efforts to the bottom lines.

 

While the panel educated and engaged the audience on their vast knowledge of this new dynamic sweeping across corporations, as demanded by consumers, it was the comment made by Zafar Brooks of Hyundai Motor America, about CSR being a “price of entry” for top talent that stayed with me.

 

Top talents have choices and recruiting this younger generation talent pool is about more than titles and salary. Today’s young talent is of a different breed; they are driven by impact, opportunities to make an impact with or create impact in their career, the same kind of impact that a company’s consumers expect and factor into their purchasing decisions.

 

How do companies attract and retain top talent, especially young talent? Develop and build up CSR initiatives, the same initiatives that captivate consumers and employees alike. Companies won’t be short of young talent leveraging their energy and drive to create impact for their personal mission, that also align with their employers’.

 

Increasing a company’s impact also aligns with winning over customers – a value embraced by today’s emerging and young workforce. Finally, the square holes are fitted by square pegs!

Share
comments: 0 » tags: , , ,

Hiring Strategies for Unexpected Opportunities

October 25, 2011 under Uncategorized

Dr. Cappelli, a professor of management at Wharton and director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources, recently wrote an article titled, Why Companies Can’t Find the Employees They Need in the Wall Street Journal. In it, he called upon companies to rethink the way they hire, especially in this economy, and shift expectations on the way they engage employees to meet human resource needs, for the benefit of “company self-interest and societal interest.”.

 

Employers wanting “prospective workers to be able to fill a role right away, without any training or ramp-up time” are “hurting companies and the economy.”

 

“To get America’s job engine revving again, companies … need to drop the idea of finding perfect candidates and look for people who could do the job with a bit of training and practice,”  he said.

 

The future of industries remain open-ended, naturally in a highly accelerated world, where new markets have emerged with unexpected opportunities. There are a myriad of incentives for companies to integrate talent acquisition and management strategies beyond filling the current job profile and openings  – one of huge significance being a company’s ability to pursue new business, albeit, unexpected opportunities amid changes in today’s economies.

 

Delays in hiring and supplying human resources to fill needs limit a company’s human capital to support business growth to stay competitive. It also threatens their capacity to innovate to stay ahead during uncertain times. The article highlighted some key strategies important to a company’s talent management that also set the hiring agenda: training programs, aspect of apprenticeship, and internal promotion.

 

With these key strategies to meet long term objectives in mind during hiring, hiring managers & recruiters look for talent based on a different set of expectations, rather than only for the current positions, in which new opportunities emerge could demand new responsibilities from employees, in order to prepare for anticipated business growth. Companies would then be in positions to take the lead from competitors with the right talent they’ve built and invested in to leverage to change course accordingly with the company’s new objectives.

 

In summary from the article, ways that the employer can take a leading role in building human capital without the risk of great investment:

 

  • Work with education provider to provide customized knowledge/courses/training before hiring. (Maybe after getting hired, they have so many weeks/months to learn the material before getting on payroll. This requires clear sets of expectations, of the job and production.)
  • Apprenticeship – ie. management training to learn the craft
  • Promote from within (to secure succession and low turnover at high leadership positions)
  • On-the job strategy (mix and match to learn while on projects, from other colleagues)

 

 

Other key takeaways:

  • These days, many companies simply don’t believe their own workers have the necessary skills to take on new roles. But, once again, many workers could step into those jobs with a bit of training.
  • Pursuing options like these vastly expands the supply of talent that employers can tap, making it both cheaper and easier to fill jobs.
  • It’s also much better for society. It helps build the supply of human capital in the economy.
Share
comments: 0 » tags: , ,

Driving Employee Incentives Drives Business Growth

October 18, 2011 under Uncategorized

        

 

October’s edition of Fortune magazine did an quick story on Jessica Herrin, founder of Stella & Dot, on how a direct sales business is redefining its industry through the motivations of its sales force, also known as Stella & Dot stylists.

 

Because the focus of iiEtalia Consulting and Services is to help companies leverage human capital to drive business growth, innovation, and impact, the model behind how Stella & Dot grew from a one woman’s trunk show selling jewelry in the comfort of homes among friends and family, to a $104 million in revenue company, with “10,000 mostly part-time stylists” is of tremendous value. It showcases the basic human qualities that are fundamentals in leveraging human capital to drive business growth.

 

Although the stylists that Jessica Herrin oversees are typically busy, middle-aged women with this home-based business, the qualities that Stella & Dots leverage to motivate part-time employees, are the same qualities that also run in younger employees of the Y generation.

 

Learning Opportunities

Their online university provides continuous professional development and opportunities to learn and grow. Stella & Dot writes their own content for their training to match the tone of their stylists (who else knows them better?) In addition to meeting sales goals and business objectives, the company nurtures the stylists’ desire for learning and growth.

 

Recognition

“Part of my to-do list is to find and celebrate success. It’s so simple, and it goes far with people.” Recognition is not a novel concept in motivating people, but this simple message could always bear repeating. It’s nice to be sincerely recognized for the hard work you do – it’s a ticket item we all seek.

 

Platform to Share & Teach

Top performers share, in their own space and time, and trade tips with other employees tips they have an amazing month.  Successful employees tell everyone else what worked, how she overcame challenges, and how others can do it too. This kind of platform recognizes the people meritoriously and without leadership mandating how successful employees should run her business.

 

Providing these incentives, beyond the paycheck and titles, create a loyal and expansive army to grow any business.

Share
comments: 0 » tags: , ,

New Incentives For High Performance

September 17, 2011 under Uncategorized

“Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation” is one of my favorite TED Talk. I take away something different every time I watch it. This time, it makes me think about how companies align the nature of the work with incentives to drive high performance through better engagement. From the talk:

  • There are intrinsic and extrinsic incentives. For tasks requiring mechanical skills, pay directly correlates with performance, because rewards by their nature narrow our focus & concentrate our minds. However, for problems that require “even rudimentary cognitive skills,” rewards “led to poorer performances.”
  • Business policies on talent and people are based on assumptions that are outdated, unexamined, and rooted more in folklore than in science.
  • How do you get more of higher performances? Neither entice them with a sweeter carrot or threaten them with a sharper stick.
  • A new approach is built upon a new model of motivations: leveraging the desire to do things because we like it, because it matters, because they’re interesting, because they’re part of something important.

 

Share
comments: 0 » tags: , , ,

World Class Talent Strategies

September 10, 2011 under Uncategorized

It’s certainly a dynamic landscape in today’s global economy. In addition to globalization and emerging markets, the global completion for talent reveals some game-changing trends leaders must also take note of, for today and looking forward to the next decade.

 

An interview with principals at Deloitte, Jeff Schwartz and Andy Liakopoulos, discussed some key points worth considering:

 

What does a company have to do to win in the talent market?

Most importantly is to recognize that the talent market is now global, then to segment the talent pool and understand the different kinds of workers.

From the video below, these are the five lessons from self-proclaimed “world-class” on talent strategies:

  1. A retention plan. Does the company have a retention plan to keep their key workers?
  1. Better align business requirements with talent requirements.
  1. Have clear metrics – clear performance indicators as to what’s important in managing talent in going forward.
  1. Using new technologies to support their talent programs.
  1. Focus on gender and diversity issues and programs.

 

 

 

Share
comments: 0 » tags: , ,
« Previous