The Metiss Group's Blog

Do people dislike Monday morning because they are disappointed the weekend is over or because they dread the week ahead?

There’s not much a leader can do about the disappointment direct reports feel when the weekend is over but they can help make the start of the week less dreadful by helping them understand their job’s priorities.

Use a job accountability matrix to identify the three to five major parts or buckets of the job. Once these accountabilities have been identified, rank them in the order in which you’d like your direct report to think about them at the beginning of the week. Click here to see a sample job accountability matrix.

Helping your directs reports REALLY understand the order of importance of their job accountabilities allows them to focus on what’s important and relieves some of their anxiety over the week ahead.

Empower your direct reports with rank ordered job accountabilities and you’ll experience more success.

Most organizations have core values or some set of guiding principles that determine the ways in which business is conducted.  Some organizations take them seriously, but other distribute core values within the organization with much pomp and circumstance and pay little attention to them thereafter.

One of the best ways to ensure core values are understood, internalized, and lived is to make them a part of the performance review process.  At least quarterly each employee in an organization should be asked to recount specific situations where they have demonstrated EVERY ONE of the organization’s core values.

One organization we worked with scored each employee on a ten point scale each quarter for each of their core values.  The score was determined by: 2 points for knowing of the core value, 2 points for being able to recite the core value verbatim, and 2 points for each of three instances where the core value was documented and demonstrated.  This organization has little problem with their employees living their core values.

Empower your direct reports to be measured by knowing and demonstrating core values and you’ll have a more successful organization.

More and more leaders are realizing their competitive edge lies with their talent.  And with their talent, they realize the greatest opportunity for growth is to develop their critical thinking skills.

Leaders must first create a safe environment for people to make mistakes and to admit thinking errors.  If this isn’t accomplished, people may feel afraid of embarrassment, humiliation, and perhaps even loss of professional status.

Once people feel comfortable explaining their thinking process, the leader can coach them on their critical thinking.  The leader’s first impulse will be to correct the direct report, provide the proper solution, and move on.  Providing the solution and explaining the rationale rarely works to develop cognition; the successful leader will ask questions to encourage the direct report to exercise that brain muscle and develop better critical thinking strength.  Some questions leaders may ask to coach for better critical thinking include:

• “How did you come to that conclusion?”
• “What are the facts that led you to that conclusion?”
• “What other options have you considered?”
• “What would happen next?”
• “Have you considered your bias?”

Empower your direct reports to learn from their mistakes and they will become successful critical thinkers.

Most job descriptions are tucked away in some HR Manager’s dusty cabinet and at best looked at once year or when the position needs to be filled.  If these documents are used, they are likely seen only by one or two people.

Job accountabilities define what is expected out of a job and should be concisely described on one page.  The accountabilities are used regularly by job-holders and their bosses to measure and track success.  Don’t stop there; share the job accountabilities with all people associated with a job.

Sharing job accountabilities lets everyone know what is AND what is not expected of the job.  Co-workers help keep the job-holder accountable and support them in achieving the success factions. Sharing the accountabilities also minimizes the frustration from others who want more of the job-holder than is included in the job.  You’d be surprised how relieved your direct reports are when everyone knows what is expected of them.  Click here to see an example of a job accountabilities report.

Empower your direct reports to share their job accountabilities and they’ll be more successful.

We all remember that one teacher or coach or boss or trainer who really challenged us.  Though we hated being pushed and thought unpleasant things about this perceived tyrant, at the end we were better as a result.

It’s your job to challenge your direct reports challenging them to grow along the way.  You understand their specific role, their particular set of skills, and where you see them contributing in the future. Figure out what else can they do that is a step beyond what they are doing today that leverages those skills.

Push hard; most people don’t want to stretch beyond their existing skill set or comfort zone if it involves taking risk. Encourage them to embrace the opportunity and discover what else they can do beyond the status quo.  For all his faults as a leader, this is where Steve Jobs excelled.

Most people, when left to their own devices, will choose to stay inside of their comfort zone. However, there is nothing motivating about someone doing the same thing they’ve done before, and long term they will be unhappy. So, do them a favor, do yourself a favor, and empower them to achieve greater future success.

Most economists expect there to be much more hiring in 2013 – we certainly have seen an increase with our clients.  Assessment instruments have become more common for hiring managers evaluating new hire candidates.  We recommend hiring managers use multiple assessments to evaluate more than one dimension of a candidate’s skill set.

Whether you are using assessments focusing on behavioral styles (Myesr-Briggs, DISC), personal skills (Hartman Value Profile, DNA), or critical thinking (Watson-Glaser, Ravens) it is important to evaluate more than one aspect of a candidate’s work skill set.  We all have multiple sets of skills and rely on different skill sets for different aspects of our job.

Hiring managers should try to assess as many of these skill sets as possible and not rely on just one assessment type.  Hiring managers also should be cautious that no assessment should be the go/no go factor of the selection process, rather indicators of where to probe more fully in interviews and reference checks.

Empower your hiring managers with multiple assessment tools in evaluating their new hires and you’ll experience better hires and less turnover.