Timing is Everything When Giving Feedback

Posted February 19, 2016 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Leadership, Performance Acceleration

Okay, maybe timing is not everything but it means a lot!

Generally speaking, feedback should be delivered immediately following an observed behavior and specific to what was observed to be most impactful.  The exception is when leaders are white-hot where delivering the feedback is likely to result in much credibility loss and the recipient will focus more on how angry or frustrated the leader is and less on what they should do in the future.

In those rare situations when frustrated beyond belief, exercising the 24-hour cool-off rule is very appropriate.  Simply indicate to the direct report something like “Let’s meet tomorrow at 9:00 when we’re both more calm to discuss what can be done to turn this situation around and prevent it from happening in the future.  I’m afraid meeting about it now may not be very productive for either of us.”

It’s okay for leaders to let their direct report know they are disappointed or angry without taking it out on them.

Leaders who empower direct reports by encouraging them to be part of the solution and don’t blame them for the negative situation will be more successful.

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Leadership Is Not For Every Star

Posted February 12, 2016 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Leadership, Performance Acceleration

We’ve all seen it several times: the emerging superstar or long-time warrior who’s excelled at all the challenges the organization has given them.  Their career path was impressive and the organization has benefited handsomely from the high-performer’s contributions.  The next logical step up the ladder is a managerial role.  This is where the superstar fails and the organization has not only lost one of its most valued contributors, they now have a leadership issue.

Not every superstar makes a great leader and great leaders were not always superstar contributors.  Though leadership skills can and should be developed, a high-performer’s leadership potential must be evaluated before they are promoted.  Delegation tendencies, strategic focus, situational control, humility, and people awareness can all be assessed BEFORE someone is promoted.  Understanding a superstar’s limitations before setting them up for failure can prevent the loss of a great asset and a managerial headache.  In fact, many organizations have two high potential career tracks: one for high performers with leadership potential and one for strong individual contributors.

Empowered leaders assess a superstar’s leadership potential before promoting them to a leadership role and both are more successful.

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Quality References Are Important When Considering Candidates

Posted February 5, 2016 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Leadership, Selection

Past performance is always the best indication of how well a candidate will likely perform in a new role.  Interviewing and assessing candidates provides useful insight, but If you have ever applied for an advanced area of study (or know someone who has), you know submitting references is a major step in the application process.  References play a significant role in the school’s admittance decision.  The prepared applicants have been cultivating their references well before the time of application.  Much thought is given to choosing those references that will be both respected by the school and can best attest to the candidate’s abilities.

The quality of references submitted by job candidates says a lot about them too.  Having bosses or senior associates as references indicates a candidate who has left jobs on favorable conditions.  Having quality references might indicate how well a candidate maintains their network.  The best references are those who have had frequent and significant interactions with the candidate.  They have had the opportunity to see the candidate’s many facets and worked with them through the rough patches.  Candidates with poor quality references may be a future headache.

Empowered hiring managers evaluate the quality of their candidates’ references and make successful hires.

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Cognitive Abilities Can Be Used To Overcome Technological Distractions

Posted January 29, 2016 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Leadership, Performance Acceleration

There are varying degrees of steadiness. Some people are focused, unyielding, and highly frustrated by distractions. Some are flexible, multi-tasked, and enjoy distractions. Some are a little of both.

How does the ubiquity of technological distractions today impact our ability to be productive? How do the super-steady types avoid getting frustrated with all the interruptions? And how do the easily distracted types garner enough focus to finish anything?

The answer is: we adapt to the situation for short periods of time. Our ability to adapt is largely a function of our cognitive abilities. We must continuously adjust our natural style and what feels comfortable; we must either block out the interruption or respond to it. Those with strong cognitive abilities are likely to be most successful in adapting to today’s work environment.

Leaders should encourage their direct reports to develop their cognitive abilities and screen new-hire candidates for their thinking abilities.

Empowered direct reports focus on their critical thinking skills and are more successful.

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Invest In Quality Time With Direct Reports And Watch The ROI Grow

Posted January 22, 2016 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Leadership

Sometimes leaders are disappointed with the performance of a direct report who was expected to be a superstar but didn’t pan out that way.  Sometimes a mediocre hire can slip through the cracks when shooting for a great hire; but other times the reason for a new hire not reaching their potential is best found looking in the mirror.  Even the hires with the greatest capabilities need some quality time with their leader to reach their full promise.

If leaders have an expensive hard asset like a large copier or other piece of equipment, they’re likely to invest in on-going maintenance to avoid unforeseen mishaps or negative surprises; interestingly enough, they’re willing to make these investments despite the fact that those assets will only depreciate over time.  When you think about a human asset that should appreciate over time, why wouldn’t leaders invest in similar operations maintenance to ensure the highest level of performance?

When it comes to accelerating the performance of direct reports, leaders should invest in weekly one-on-one time, provide on-going and timely course corrections and positive feedback, deliver quarterly performance reviews, discuss goal alignment, and encourage personal development.  Leaders who have fallen out of the habit of those activities should start them back up.  If they’ve never tried them, try it for a month and watch the investment grow.

Leaders who empower their direct reports by investing some quality time with them then watch the ROI grow on their original hiring investment.

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Personal Development Is More Than Intellectual

Posted January 15, 2016 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Leadership, Performance Acceleration

Leaders are responsible for challenging their direct reports to personally grow and providing resources for their development. Leaders are not responsible for teaching, just the inspiration.

On-going personal development can be of the mind (intellectual), body (physical), heart (relationships), or spirit (values).  Too often development is just focused on the intellectual (mind). There is nothing wrong with encouraging direct reports to grow in all parts of life.

Taking an aerobics class (physical), spending more time with the family (relationships), or attending a spiritual retreat (values) are all effective personal development activities that can make direct reports more productive.

The leader’s job is to empower their direct reports to develop. Their continued growth and development – in all aspects of their life – will lead to everyone’s success.

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Avoid Availability Bias In Performance Evaluations

Posted January 8, 2016 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Leadership

Cognition, the act or process of thinking, enables us to process vast amounts of information quickly. As we are consciously thinking about one specific thing, our brain is processing thousands of subconscious ideas. Unfortunately, our cognition is not perfect, and there are certain judgment errors that we are prone to making, known in the field of psychology as cognitive biases. They happen to everybody regardless of age, gender, education, intelligence, or other factors.  For leaders, these errors often impact their leadership effectiveness.

One of the challenges leaders face is availability bias when conducting performance evaluations.  Availability bias is the tendency for a direct report’s recent positive or negative action to “spill over” to other areas the evaluator’s perceptions of them. This bias happens a lot in employee performance evaluations. For example, if a direct report has been late to work for three days, leaders may remember this and conclude that they are lazy and don’t care about their job. There are many possible reasons for this; perhaps their car broke down, their babysitter did not show up, or there has been bad weather. The problem is, because of one negative aspect, they may assume that the direct report is a poor worker and that may unfairly influence the overall evaluation of them.

Empowered leaders document all the behaviors of their direct reports for the whole performance evaluation period. They review those notes when preparing their performance evaluations and try not to let recent or singular events influence their evaluation and develop more successful direct reports.

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Opposites Don’t Attract

Posted January 4, 2016 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Leadership, Selection

Have you ever heard the phrase opposites attract? It’s wrong. It makes sense to us, but it’s still wrong. The data on relationships are completely convincing – people who are like one another tend to be attracted to one another.

The problem with this “opposites attract” mentality is that leaders are naturally attracted to hiring people who are like them. And, if they only hire people like them, they will end up with a team of people who have all of their strengths, and all of their weaknesses.

What’s the danger in that? If a leader makes a mistake, the other people like them on their team are less likely to catch it. In fact they’re likely to not even notice it is a mistake.

The best way for leaders to solve this problem is to benchmark their jobs and determine the specific profile to be successful in the job and then hire against that profile.  This unbiased, objective job matching approach reduces the chance a leader may hire against their own personality profile.  If very early on in the selection process, they’re “totally in love with” a candidate, chances are the candidate is similar in style to the hiring manager. They may work out fine, or they may be adding to their weaknesses in a way that they don’t expect.

Hiring managers should add empowering behavioral tools to the selection process for future success.

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Ask For More Than One Example To Get A Handle On Reality

Posted December 11, 2015 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Selection

Behavior based interview and reference check questions are based on the premise that previous performance is a better predictor of future performance than anything else.  So behavior based questions ask for specific examples, not generalities, of things an individual has done in the past rather than how they “might” do things in the future.  If people are asked how they should behave, most people can provide the right answer, but have they always done what they should have done?

When asking behavior-based questions in interviews or reference checks, hiring managers shouldn’t be afraid to ask for more than one example.  The first time the question is asked, the answer might include a situation so unique that most anyone would respond appropriately. However if asked for one or two other examples, the hiring manager will get a better feel for how this person reacts to more common situations. This is especially helpful when they’re probing an area of concern that may have arisen in assessments or previous interviews.

As an example, a hiring manager might ask someone, “Please give me an example of a situation in which you were expected to comply with a policy with which you didn’t necessarily agree.” The first example may be a great story and the hiring manager may even have follow-up probing questions, but when it’s done, simply ask, “Do you have another example?”  While it may sound too forced, it actually plays out far more conversational than one would think.

Empowered interviewers and those doing reference checks get to the heart of the matter by asking for multiple examples and make successful hires.

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Leadership Trumps Talent

Posted December 4, 2015 by The Metiss Group
Categories: Leadership

History is filled with examples of teams of underdogs that unexpectedly go on to accomplish great results.  Conversely, there are examples of seemingly great teams filled with stars that fail to meet expectations.

 The difference is leadership.  Effective leaders are focused both on getting the right people AND getting people right.  Getting people right is taking existing talent and getting the most out of them by challenging each team member differently and leveraging their collective strengths.  John Wooden won 10 NCAA basketball championships in 12 years, not just by recruiting the best players, but also by getting the most out of them.  How many times have we seen the number one draft choice in professional sports fail?  Leadership almost always trumps talent.

Empowered leaders get their people right and experience more success.

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