The Productivity Blog

i4cp RELEASES NEW RESEARCH: SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP COACHING POSITIVELY EFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINE

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:00:00 UTC

Ineffective leadership coaching is costly and impedes development, according to the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp)

Seattle, WA (June 18, 2013) - The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), a research organization that focuses on the people practices that drive market performance, has released new research that reveals that organizational ineffectiveness at coaching future leaders is potentially costing companies and shareholders in a big way.

i4cp's new report, How High-Performance Organizations Accelerate Executive Leadership Development, offers three key leadership development approaches that characterize high-performance organizations:

Call upon trusted individuals for mentoring and professional colleagues for coaching.
Utilize high-visibility assignments as well as hands-on developmental opportunities.
Access internal resources and external institutions to provide leadership development learning content.

Of the three practices discussed in the report, coaching has the highest correlation to market performance—defined by revenue, profit, market share and customer satisfaction—yet 44% of organizations say they're not effective at coaching high-potential employees.

The biggest source of this deficiency falls on managers and supervisors. In fact, 51% of survey respondents (a mix of human resources and business leaders) indicated that leaders who are ineffective at coaching high-potential employees are the top hindrance to the success of leadership development programs.

"Of course, managers who are ineffective at coaching their employees are just a symptom of a deeper issue," said Donna Parrey, senior analyst at i4cp and study author. "This latest research offers clear evidence that organizations need to do more to support their managers. Providing leaders with adequate training on how to coach effectively is critical to both coach and coachee, and that in turn can have a significant impact on financial performance."

This research was developed in conjunction with i4cp's Executive Leadership Development Exchange, a peer working group that includes AT&T, Cargill, Pitney Bowes, Toyota Financial Services and several other leading organizations.

A complimentary abbreviated synopsis of the report is now available on the i4cp website and i4cp members have exclusive access to download the full report now. This research will be followed with an upcoming report, Journey to Leadership Profiles, which includes stories on their personal journeys to leadership from executives in firms that are members of i4cp's Executive Leadership Development Exchange.

Upcoming Webinar: Galvanizing Your Workforce Around a Shared Mission, Vision, Values and Strategy

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:35:32 UTC

Don't miss out on this complimentary webinar this Thursday, June 20 at 1pm EDT (10am PT) presented by Mark Gasta, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Vail Resorts Management Company.

This webinar presents a case study example of Vail Resorts' process to clearly articulate the higher purpose of organizational efforts in order to galvanize the efforts of the team, which resulted in greater employee engagement and organizational alignment. This integrated, multi-year plan of action incorporated all business units and functions; developed agreed upon clear, measurable milestones; and enabled all business units, functional areas, and employees to proactively work together towards a clearly defined end state with the ultimate goal of maximizing the long term success of the organization.

During this webinar, you will learn:

How to establish both a short and long term vision for the organization and enlist others in that vision
How to assist the organization in consciously preserving core values while stimulating process/growth
How to ensure business/functional alignment in order to maximize efforts
How to develop a comprehensive approach to both doing well (growing profitability) and doing good (by employees, communities, and the environment)

The webinar is HRCI credit approved and all attendees will receive a recording of the webinar afterwards. What are you waiting for? Register now.

Complimentary Podcast on New Employee Engagement Research

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:00:00 UTC

New research from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) reveals the essential practices that have a positive impact on employee engagement and business results. Listen to the Central Valley Business Times audio interview with Kevin Copestick, Director of Member Exchange Programs at i4cp, as he discusses some key highlights from the recent report, Employee Engagement: Strategies and Practices.

One finding Copestick shares is that high-performance organizations are 4.5 times more likely than low-performing organizations to measure the impact of engagement on revenue growth. And, he says, high-performance organizations are twice as likely as low-performance organizations (40% vs. 19%) to include engagement as part of each manager's performance review.

High-performance organizations try to embed employee engagement at every opportunity, from the company's brand through recruiting and hiring, their training, and performance development. "Our leaders quickly build alignment through tailoring their approach to what the employees see as critical—things that are easily and immediately doable," Copestick says.

Download the podcast now (10 MB).

Kevin Copestick is also the leader of i4cp's Employee Engagement Exchange, a working group that provides members a unique and powerful way to collaborate with peers and work closely with i4cp experts to develop tools and techniques to achieve high-performance in employee engagement. Learn more here.

Case Study: Fast Start – EMC’s Onboarding Program

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:22:09 UTC

A recent presentation to i4cp's Chief Learning & Talent Officer Board featured Tom Clancy, VP of Education Services, and Kaelyn Phillips, Senior Marketing Program Manager at EMC. The technology and cloud-computing firm employs approximately 60,000 people worldwide and has a presence in more than 80 countries. Phillips led the development of EMC's new onboarding program, Fast Start.

EMC's Onboarding Challenges

Prior to the March 2013 debut of its new global onboarding program, Fast Start, EMC found its pathway for new hires lacking in multiple areas, according to Tom Clancy. "EMC has a pretty mature education function offering many different things—technology courses, sales courses, partner and customer courses, academic alliances, etc.," he said. "But we had new people coming onboard and too many tools and processes not meeting the mark for those new employees." Clancy says that Kaelyn Phillips was charged with fixing this. "Her charter was to put together a globally consistent, compelling, multi-business unit, role-specific, companywide onboarding program with tracking metrics, robust content-rich materials, and to do it at little or no cost. She queried HR, the different business units, sales, marketing, management, and others across the globe and came up with one tool that would meet everyone's needs."

Inconsistencies and confusing content

Under the old system, Phillips explained, new hires were sent to four different websites in search of onboarding content. "There were too many groups involved in onboarding, and most were providing very little value to the experience. We had a siloed set of legacy solutions owned by recruiting: HR, EMC University, which is our education group, and education services. Each managed a site, leading to redundancies, and infrequent updating left content stale. The onboarding process just wasn't consistent."

Lack of onboarding leadership

Although company leaders were interested in ensuring that EMC had an onboarding process in place, they had not explored the benefits a strong onboarding program could afford or the potential business impact that would be felt if new hires were ramped-up ineffectively or too slowly. Those circumstances added to the conditions signaling the need to redesign and improve onboarding at EMC.

Fast Start is the answer

Phillips worked with stakeholders from the education services team, recruiting, and HR to evaluate options, and the group chose internally developed Fast Start as the most robust platform. She explained: "Fast Start was built out because about a year ago we took the paper-based onboarding program we had and converted it to an online solution. Much of the outline of what we've done is based on what we already had in Fast Start. We've just improved on it and added to it."

The Fast Start platform offered what Phillips characterized as "a centralized, globally consistent onboarding experience for all new hires, regardless of business unit or role. All the information they need to become successfully integrated into EMC is now located within Fast Start. And it's laid out in a manner that provides them a roadmap to success. New hires simply need to follow steps and they will become productive in their new roles."

A look at Fast Start

Upon accessing Fast Start, a new hire inputs his/her function and role to be directed to the appropriate Welcome Screen. Pictured above is the screen that greets new sales and presales professionals. Phillips explained that the welcome screen fulfills two functions—providing a landing page that facilitates completion of critical day-one HR-related tasks and introduction of the new hire to expectations of the Fast Start onboarding process.

For an international organization such as EMC, the day-one HR functions differ according to location, Phillips said. "Because Fast Start is a global program, links were created to send users to information specific to their country, but in a way that consolidates all the information."

All hires get a company overview

With day-one activities complete, the new hire moves into the Know EMC section, which remains constant across all roles. This portion acquaints new hires with the company, providing an overview, along with sections for HR resources, general resources, and intranet sites. Here, the user finds information on social or community movements within EMC, as well. The material may be revisited by the employee at any time during their tenure at the company.

A customized ramp-up to productivity

Phillips called the Learn Your Role section "the meat of Fast Start." Varying by role, specific learning activities are presented with the objective of quickly moving the new hire to productivity. "I worked with each role in EMC and determined what actions are most useful for a person beginning the role," Phillips explained. "More importantly, what do current employees wish they had known when they were new hires?" The section's activities cover a six-to-12-week time frame with the completion time varying by role.

While each role is unique, Phillips pointed out some common themes, such as time frame and page layout. Sales roles have e-learning options with specific content linkages. She noted that EMC business units are free to customize content to meet their needs, and added that some link to sites they'd already created in order to leverage existing content.

Milestones mark new hires' progress

"The last piece of Fast Start is the Training Milestones section," Phillips observed. "To ensure that the new hire stays on track, it lifts out the key steps that must be completed in order to be officially considered onboarded. Each of these milestones can be found in the Learn Your Role section but are highlighted here. These are often the most important activities the new hire must complete."

Tabs on the right side of each screen vary by function. In the illustrated screens, Sales Accreditation refers to a continuing development program for sales and presales employees.

eduTube is EMC's own version of YouTube, offering a library of online videos. The Mentor Program tab provides guidelines for new hires about finding a mentor and setting up mentoring arrangements. Every function has access to the Questions, New Hire Discussion Board and eduTube tabs.

Once a new hire has completed Fast Start, additional learning opportunities are available, Clancy says. "We have Fast Start, and then we have New Hire for about 15,000 people in the company. The New Hire training is face-to-face, done at corporate, and brings in all the executives. It lasts about a week. That's still considered on-boarding. Then employees transition to ongoing programs, such as sales accreditation for sales and presales employees."

A coaching tool

Fast Start has proven to be a helpful coaching tool for EMC managers. Phillips explains that "because the site provides a vast list of activities and timelines, it can help managers discover their new hires' strengths and areas of growth. It also helps those managers begin a cadence of weekly conversations with their new hires. The site should drive these discussions and can help promote deeper dives into issues that may extend beyond the scope of onboarding," said Clancy.

Encouraging results

EMC rolled out Fast Start in Q1 of 2013, and Phillips called early results "fantastic. Each quarter we survey new sales and presales employees. In the most recent survey, 100% of respondents said that Fast Start prepared them for their new role. That compares with only 82% for the year before."

Phillips explained that 70 unique job roles have been included in Fast Start thus far, with more to be added. "With 60,000 people, there are many roles and we can't get to them all right away," she said. "So we created a general role that presents a generic set of activities that a new hire can complete. Regardless of role, the employee can become familiar with the company and understand how to ramp-up."

Better measures ahead

Measurement is another area to be expanded, Phillips said. At present, the company can track the number of people visiting the Fast Start site (how many times one actually goes into the site) and the number viewing the site (clicks in the site during a user's visit). Other metrics currently in use are qualitative—a sales and presales onboarding survey and a HR survey. As the program evolves, Phillips expects to add a tracking dashboard that will enable both users and managers to track individuals' progress through the Fast Start program.

On-boarding program design: Seven lessons learned from EMC's Fast Start

For HR, learning, and other organizational leaders interested in establishing or expanding their onboarding programs, EMC's experiences in developing a globally consistent onboarding experience offer these valuable ideas:

Begin with the basics and make them relevant. The first section of EMC's Fast Start program ensures that employees complete all required documents and activities applicable to a new hire's first day of work. For its global workforce, the company customizes the section to provide location-specific forms and information.
Provide a comprehensive company overview. EMC includes company-specific information in Fast Start, along with links to organizational resources that support success throughout an employee's tenure.
Create general and role-specific content. The Fast Start program features content customized to 70 employee roles and more are being added. Designers included a general role to make the onboarding program inclusive for workers whose roles are not yet completed in the system.
Design a clear pathway and include rewards. EMC's program includes milestones that clearly communicate steps new hires must take to accomplish on-boarding. Their completion reinforces new employees' efforts by providing a tangible record of progress.
Identify ancillary applications of on-boarding programs. EMC recognized that its onboarding program produced information that enabled Fast Start to act as a coaching tool for managers.
Check program effectiveness. Surveying participants to gauge program effectiveness enables EMC to gauge on-boarding success.
Plan for measurement. EMC started with a few meaningful metrics and is in the process of adding a dashboard to provide additional measures of onboarding activity and program outcomes.

Trust is the Foundation of Engagement at 3M

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:09:25 UTC

3M differentiates between employee satisfaction and employee engagement by looking at how the perceptions, behaviors and drivers associated with each word differ. The company found that while engaged employees are satisfied and demonstrate satisfaction behaviors as well as engagement behaviors, the same is not necessarily true in reverse: satisfied employees don't always display engagement behaviors.

3M defines engagement as: "an individual's sense of purpose and focused energy, evident to others in the display of personal initiative, effort and persistence directed toward organizational goals."

With this in mind, 3M's engagement model looks at conditions for engagement that include engagement attitudes, engagement behaviors and organizational outcomes. The basic building blocks of engagement at 3M are:

Fair/consistent treatment leads to people trusting their environment,
Trusting one's environment leads to a sense of safety,
People feel safe to take action on their own initiative, supporting engagement and innovation.

How does a global company ensure alignment worldwide?

Karen B. Paul, Ph.D., who leads Global HR Measurement for 3M, says that the fundamentals of engagement are universal; the desire for meaning and purpose in the workplace knows no borders; how the company capitalizes on the fundamentals is local, and how these two facts are aligned can produce engagement and financial success.

At 3M, employee engagement is definitely on the rise with consistent increases on key measures—commitment, innovation, engagement and risk-taking, even during a time of economic uncertainty. 3M's research validates the business case for employee engagement, finding that engagement attitudes predict 3M plant absenteeism (short-term disability), reduced benefits costs, evidence that lab employee engagement attitudes are linked to innovation and profitability, and linking employee engagement with customer loyalty and sustainability.

This is an excerpt from i4cp's report, Employee Engagement Strategies and Practices, available to i4cp members exclusively.

The Case for the She Suite

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:51:00 UTC

Female executives are increasingly in the spotlight--not because they're in roles that have been traditionally filled by men, but because they are effective executives who drive business. A new i4cp initiative focused on women business leaders will kick off soon with monthly interviews profiling successful and powerful female executives. Stories from the She Suite™ will examine the characteristics, traits, insights and experiences of these executives and share those stories with the i4cp membership.

Why focus on female leaders? Because there is a correlation between the number of women in senior management positions and improved corporate performance, and yet just four percent of CEOs of U.S. companies are women. Multiple studies conducted by Catalyst have established an empirical link between gender diversity in corporate leadership and financial performance, most recently finding that Fortune 500 companies with high percentages of female officers had a 35% higher return on equity and a 34% higher total return than companies with fewer women executives.

McKinsey & Company noted in a 2012 study, part of its Women Matter research, that "companies benefit from the different but complementary leadership styles that women bring to their work, to the extent that there is a link between the proportion of women in senior management positions and corporate performance."

What does the gender balance in your organization's leadership look like? If there's a glaring lack of gender diversity, chances are pretty good that your company's leadership is neither reflective of its workforce or its customers and isn't performing overall as well as it could. Clearly, corporations that are slow to develop and leverage their pools of talented female employees are placing themselves at a distinct disadvantage in terms of growth, profitability and competitiveness now and in the future.

The Global Perspective

Progress is dismally slow in the numbers of women being elevated to senior management positions in most parts of the world: women account for just 17% of seats on corporate boards and 10% of executive committees in Europe. In the U.S., women account for 15% of seats on corporate boards and 14% of executive committees according to McKinsey & Company. Recent steps forward seem to be fueled largely by concern about worsening talent shortages in some regions, especially in Asia, where corporations have been very slow in opening the C-suite to women.

The New York Times reported last month that Asian universities are beginning to follow the lead of business schools such as Harvard and Stanford in offering specialized programs to develop female business leaders--the University of Hong Kong launched a program designed to prepare Asian women for the boardroom this past April. Similar initiatives and special courses for female executives are offered at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Peking University, and the National University of Singapore. The Times quoted Dr. Vivian Lim, director of the National University of Singapore's Women in Leadership program, who noted that the growth of such programs in Asia is in response to challenges presented by critical talent shortages in the region: "Organizations have come to realize that women provide a ready pool of talent and [that] more can be done to harness this reserve of [talent]," Lim said.

Addressing gender imbalance should be a factor in building and enhancing a strong employer brand. And while there are many steps organizations can take to move things in the right direction, none will be effective without the support and leadership of the CEO, who must model proactive behavior by promoting or recruiting more women into senior positions and holding senior leaders accountable for diversity and inclusion goals centered on helping women reach their full potential. Other recommendations:

Consider partnering with high schools and colleges to develop mentoring programs that pair female executives with young women interested in a career in business. Such programs might include events and activities such as a day of job shadowing and company tours.
Start a sponsorship program that pairs high-potential female employees with executives who will act as their advocates and help to raise their profiles in the organization.
Tap into external advisors to coach senior leaders on diversity and inclusion efforts.
Involve female leaders in recruitment efforts and internal branding and emphasize work/life balance benefits such as schedule flexibility, job rotation programs, customized learning and development plans, and career customization.

Lorrie Lykins is i4cp's managing editor and director of research services and author of Stories from the She Suite™.

Rio Tinto links engagement to business results

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 01:00:00 UTC

Rio Tinto has been conducting surveys of employees for quite some time, initially focusing on gathering input and opinions regarding issues that affect the organization rather than employment. Culturally, there was a sense that the contributions of people impact business performance, but the company's leadership wanted to make solid connections between employee engagement and performance of the business.

Rio Tinto's approach to demonstrating that employee engagement is much more than an HR initiative to gauge satisfaction began with the appointment of an advisor on employee engagement. A case study by Towers Watson, Rio Tinto's partner on the initiative, notes that Rio Tinto already had a broad spectrum of business measures, and rather than adopt standard engagement measures, was eager to establish links between employee engagement and business performance unique to the organization. This was achieved by using linkage analysis to define the engagement measure. Towers Watson and Rio Tinto designed a wider survey than usual to allow a broader field for correlation. The routine employee opinion analysis was completed swiftly, but the linkage analysis demanded more complex and time-consuming statistical modeling. Rio Tinto provided performance data based on safety, production and maintenance measures.

Six survey items emerged that showed strong, consistent links to the performance measures that are most important to Rio Tinto's plants and mines managers, far more meaningful than a standard conceptual measure of engagement. From this, Rio Tinto had a key performance indicator (KPI) linking engagement to business results. Towers Watson and Rio Tinto analyzed the underlying drivers—identified as leadership, external reputation, and safety practices—to develop action plans for improvements as well as benchmark themselves against similar organizations in Towers Watson's database.

This is an excerpt from i4cp's report, Employee Engagement Strategies and Practices, available to i4cp members exclusively.

Coaches for High-Potential Employees: Buy ‘em or Build ‘em?

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 08:00:00 UTC

Coaching high-potential employees is a bit like parenting; you often learn by doing. Some learn business coaching by the seat-of-their-pants. Some emulate the same coaching practices that were used on them. Some will do anything but the same practices that were used on them.

Unlike parenting, however, you don't have 18 years to get it right. Fortunately, there are options for introducing excellent coaching to the high-potentials at your organization. You can buy it, or you can build it.

The need for excellence in coaching surfaced in a recent study conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) for the members of its working group, the Executive Leadership Development Exchange. This study, Accelerating High-Potential Employees on the Path to Leadership, found a business coaching conundrum: while coaching is an effective developmental practice, managers of high-potential employees just aren't that effective at doing it.

The case for buying coaching expertise

The expectation that all managers—in addition to managing the people, processes and functions they are charged with—should also be experts at coaching may be difficult to meet. The specific skills involved in working with many different personality-types to bring about behavioral change or build skills can be a challenge to master. For this reason, some organizations look to external coaches, but primarily for executive-level employees, according to Coaching: What Really Works, a previous i4cp study conducted in partnership with the American Management Association (AMA). The lack of standards in credentialing coaches, however, makes the selection of such external coaches a challenge in and of itself.

Securing the services of an external professional coach may be a costly alternative for coaching high-potential employees. Hourly rates can average $320 for executive coaches and $240 for business coaches, according to Sherpa Coaching. Organizations may want to stick with well-recognized firms or consider using external coaches to "coach the coaches" internally. Another option is to send managers to an external development program.

The case for building coaching expertise

The i4cp study on accelerating high-potentials found that high-performance organizations (HPOs)—those that have experienced growth in revenue, market share, profitability and customer satisfaction during the preceding five years—provide a culture of coaching at their firms. This culture is credited with being a success factor in HPO's hi-po development programs and is significantly correlated to market performance. Two-thirds of HPOs use coaching to accelerate their high-potentials on the journey to leadership readiness.

With internal management development programs, give managers opportunities to practice their coaching skills. Role-playing can be especially helpful for honing skills in listening, probing and giving feedback. This practice can build confidence in managers as well as their ability to gain the trust of the high-potential employees they coach.

Expanding the business coaching pool

In the i4cp/AMA study, coaching strategies included expanding the pool of coaches. The Coaching: What Really Works Playbook suggests that such expansion efforts could include professional external coaches, trained internal coaches and even peer coaches. Regardless of the source of coaches, it is critical to match the right coach and coachee with a professional and personal fit.

Develop a game plan for the careful selection of the right coaches. Screen for relevant qualifications, conduct formal interviews with prospective coaches, and have executives or HR professionals serve as a qualified matchmakers between coach and coachee. This upfront attention is critical, as 65% of those responding to the coaching survey agreed that a top barrier to coaching success was the mismatch between coach and coachee, leading to the termination of coaching assignments.

With options and resources to tap, organizations can bring business coaching skills to their managers. Those managers, in turn, can help to develop the high-potential employees under their supervision.

How does your organization ramp up coaching talent? What recomendations do you have for a successful high-potential employee coaching program?

Jack in the Box Links Engagement to Profits

Fri, 31 May 2013 01:00:00 UTC

Jack in the Box Inc. has conducted annual employee surveys for nearly two decades, following the familiar cycle of conducting a survey each year, summarizing and sharing the results with the organization. Mark Blankenship, the company's SVP and Chief Administrative Officer, arrived to find that the company ascribed to the service profit chain model* for operating its restaurants. The concept at the heart of this model is that if restaurant managers excel at hiring the right employees, those hires will provide superior service to guests, resulting in happier (and loyal) guests, who would then be more loyal to the brand. This idea of hiring the right employees, treating them well, training consistently and paying above average—all of which leads to high levels of customer service, loyalty and retention—was, as Blankenship wrote in HR Magazine, " … the belief system or logic chain. We put language to that effect in our annual reports" (2012).

HR measured employee satisfaction and engagement through the annual survey and "demonstrated relationships between satisfaction with the boss, benefits, training, turnover and so forth, but that's where HR's analytical connection to the business stopped," says Blankenship, who was intrigued that HR professionals did not engage in connecting the "people" data to the financial and operational data, nor did leaders in finance and operations express interest in that same people data as an integral, strategic element of their analytical work. "After all," says Blankenship, "they measure every aspect of restaurant and business performance."

Blankenship moved to assemble the restaurant performance data and connect the organization's people metrics and business performance, the beginnings of what became "a strategic shift in decision-making," Blankenship says. The data told a story—restaurants staffed by happier employees had happier guests and correspondingly higher sales and profits. "We learned that the manager controlled much of what we saw as employee satisfaction but that ‘happy employees' were only part of the equation that led to our current ‘people equity scorecard.'"

The organization began to change the way business was discussed—based on the data and process—and they added quarterly internal service surveys to follow-up the annual survey. The quarterly surveys defined eight dimensions: communication; feedback; interpersonal treatment; leadership; physical environment; rewards and recognition; staffing; training and development. Blankenship says that the quarterly follow-up surveys measured the performance of restaurant managers, which were a component of the manager's performance review. "We used those results to inform our restaurant operations team about what was really driving employee engagement and performance. To their surprise, it was less about pay—despite entry-level wages associated with the quick-service restaurant industry—and more about consistent staffing, training and feedback."

Jack in the Box was able to refine its people data down to eight dimensions of service and had employees rate their managers on these eight dimensions. This information was then shared with the restaurant managers, which enables them to assess their own performance. After a year of sharing this feedback with managers quarterly, the company made this process part of a manager's regular performance review in order to hold them accountable.

This is an excerpt from i4cp's report, Employee Engagement Strategies and Practices, available to i4cp members exclusively.

How Grainger Builds Coaching Skills in its Leaders

Wed, 29 May 2013 19:43:21 UTC

As W.W. Grainger, Inc. evolved from a U.S.-centric firm to a global distributor of industrial supplies, the concept of leader-led development emerged, and its Leaders as Coaches initiative was launched in 2009. Three years later, John Lawson, Director of Learning and Development, said the investment in the Leader as Coach program has been well worth it.

Here's how the process rolled out: leaders experienced the program first as learners, then participated in a train-the-trainer certification and finally delivered the modules to their managers. Leaders then shift to a coaching role, reinforcing the concepts and skills with their managers on an on-going basis.

The five modules in the Leader as Coach program are as follows:

Role of the leader as coach

Leaders guide managers through discovery learning to link coaching to the company's strategy. They define good coaching, identify the leader's role in coaching, and develop action plans to eliminate any barriers to coaching.

Effective interpersonal communications

Leaders guide managers in understanding how to construct clear and concise messages. It also includes active listening, effective questioning techniques, and giving and receiving feedback effectively.

Coaching for performance

This instructor-led module focuses on understanding the customized, Grainger-specific coaching model. Key elements include keeping team members focused on the right things to profitably drive Grainger's business, identifying and closing performance gaps, and partnering with team members to conduct coaching conversations.

Partnering for results

This module emphasizes ways leaders can create an open, trusting environment for their teams, how to overcome challenges to that trust, and role-play of coaching scenarios in gaining trust before team members are receptive to coaching.

Effective teamwork

The final module pulls everything together to optimize the coaching process and extend the coaching conversation to enable leading high-performing teams. By the end of the program, leaders are able to adjust their coaching approach based on the individual team member and situation, set standards for performance, clearly communicate responsibilities and expectations, monitor progress with candid and constructive feedback, and demonstrate their strong commitment to developing people.

Participants in the Leader as Coach curriculum reported that that their coaching behaviors had improved: 78% of respondents said that the training helped them better understand expectations around coaching and teaching; 89% of respondents noted they were able to apply what they learned in the training within one month.

Lawson said, "I think we have better leaders. When it comes to this core competency—coaching, providing feedback, being reflective—this is table stakes."

This is an excerpt from i4cp's report, Accelerating High-Potential Employees on the Path to Leadership, available to i4cp members exclusively.

Drive Business Strategy Execution Through Employee Engagement

Tue, 28 May 2013 01:00:00 UTC

For the most part, organizations are poor at putting strategy into action. The hardest challenge in executing strategy is not necessarily identifying what to do, as much as determining how to align employees toward a common business objective.

Recent i4cp research has revealed that much of what drives alignment at high-performance organizations (HPOs) has a great deal to do with engagement. Does the workforce understand the strategy? Do employees understand what's expected of them and how achieving those expectations will help the business achieve its goals? Do workers have access to resources (e.g. training, learning support, individual developments plans, mentors) that will enable them to fill the knowledge/skill gaps that may impede their ability to get the job done right. Do leaders—from front line up through senior management—understand the importance of, and how to, develop their employees to increase productivity and impact on the business?

In soon-to-be published research from i4cp and the American Management Association, business strategy execution ranks as the fifth most widely taught competency in the global leadership development programs of HPOs. In that same study, establishing and supporting a culture of engagement ranks third among HPOs—above business strategy execution. Clearly companies are aware of the importance of executing their business strategies, yet not all are as clear on the role that a culture of engagement plays in how to achieve that execution.

Leaders at high-performance organizations recognize that these critical capabilities are interdependent; that creating an engaged culture is a prerequisite for enabling execution of the business strategy. A critical element of alignment is a corporate culture that makes employee engagement the responsibility of every leader from the front line to top leadership, rather than relegating it to an activity wholly owned by human resources.

Frontline managers are the linchpin for building and sustaining engagement, which is why one of the best employee engagement practices identified by i4cp research is to include engagement as part of each manager's performance review—high-performance organizations are twice as likely as low-performance organizations (LPOs) to do this (40% vs. 19%). Most importantly, before front-line managers and leaders can engage the workforce, they must first be engaged themselves and clearly understand their roles as leaders responsible for developing and fostering the engagement of their teams.

i4cp's latest study, Employee Engagement: Strategies and Practices, reveals four essential practices that high-performance organizations implement that have a positive impact on overall employee engagement.

Maintain a culture in which employees understand organizational goals and are empowered to achieve them. This speaks directly to solid performance management processes and how competent managers are at helping their teams establish and remain focused on their goals.
Measure the impact of engagement on the business. Approached and defined appropriately, engagement becomes a leading (not lagging) indicator of business growth. i4cp member organization Avnet, for example, attributes engagement to a four-year compounded annual growth rate of nearly 32% in earnings per share.
Include engagement in manager performance appraisals and development plans. One of the strongest trends identified in i4cp's Talent Management in the Trenches study is holding line managers accountable for the development of their people. This leading practices should be expanded to include engagement, which is strongly influenced by the availability and promotion of developmental opportunities.
Emphasize prompt and focused follow through on engagement issues, with frequent and regular communications on the impact to the business. Employees at HPOs are twice as likely as those from LPOs to agree that their organization does an effective job of taking meaningful action following engagement surveys. This demonstrates that the organization is listening to its employees and is taking action on specific items that are impeding engagement and overall organizational productivity.

Engagement at high-performance organizations is not a survey score or a single event, nor is it a series of independent actions. Engagement is the result of purposeful alignment of culture, strategy, capabilities and performance, and re-thinking the ways in which these connect to execute the business strategy. One practice that all organizations can benefit from is found in linking the conversation and curriculum pertaining to two essential global leadership development competencies: business strategy execution and establishing a culture of engagement. This will empower your leaders to drive the business forward via a highly engaged workforce that is strongly aligned with the business' goals.

AIG Identifies High-Potentials with it's People to Watch Program

Thu, 23 May 2013 17:39:30 UTC

The selection process for choosing participants in AIG's People to Watch initiative includes an eclectic combination of grade levels, performance ratings and other criteria, but the results work for the global firm. The 2012 initiative had 132 participants, representing all regions in which AIG operates.

People to Watch launched in 2012, fueled by a desire to populate the leadership pipeline with a diverse talent pool that reflects its customer base. Courtney Williams, Program Manager in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, said participants were culled from the ranks of mid-level managers. "We have so many diverse high-potentials around the globe," said Williams, "and People to Watch was created to identify them and prepare them for a future with our company."

Criteria now and going forward

The 2012 target group was based on grade level to pinpoint mid-managers not being groomed within higher-level programs. To ensure a successful cadre of entrants, the final participants were selected by the local HR and business leaders based on specific criteria including performance ratings. Future programs will broaden the selection criteria to focus on program content and skills.

The "Passport to Success"

People to Watch includes an invitation to attend the signature professional development forum "Passport to Success." The forum is based on AIG's Core Competency Framework and includes opportunities for network building with peers and leaders across functions and businesses. Participants also take a self-assessment to explore key factors in developing a global mindset and leveraging diverse communication styles. The two-day forum provides participants with visibility and exposure to regional and global company leaders via featured speaker sessions and group mentoring exercises with executives. Williams says senior leaders speak candidly about their successes and challenges and that it's eye-opening for participants to hear about those experiences first-hand. "They help the participants make the connection to our company's core competencies."

Measures of success

The success of the initiative is measured via post-surveys and through open dialogue with both participants and the world-wide mentors. "We have executives thanking us for the opportunity and asking how they can participate again in the future," said Williams. With that kind of enthusiasm and support from AIG's global leaders, the People to Watch initiative is gaining recognition as a great tool for creating a diverse pipeline of high-potential employees.

This is an excerpt from i4cp's report, Accelerating High-Potential Employees on the Path to Leadership, available to i4cp members exclusively.

10 Steps to Rev Up Employee Engagement

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:03:00 UTC

Passion for the mission. Extra effort to get the job done. Commitment to the organization. These are traits and behaviors exhibited by employees who are highly engaged. i4cp's research on employee engagement confirms that in high-performing organizations (HPOs) employee engagement involves far more than a periodic survey followed by activity-planning. Engagement is the result of a series of activities that need to be embedded into every step of the employee life cycle process from the employer brand portrayed, recruiting and onboarding, to leadership, learning and development, and reward and recognition.

Following are 10 vital steps—gleaned from high-performance organizations and highlighted in i4cp's new report Employee Engagement: Strategies and Practices (available exclusively to i4cp members)—that can help achieve that:

1. Design/enhance your employer brand around key engagement drivers.

Engagement is a driver of performance—there is no better way to bring future stars than by engaging them from the start on those attributes of the job and the organization that drive their passion and energy. Build an employee value proposition and workplace environment around attributes that most engage employees. More than half of Harley-Davidson employees own motorcycles (and many have the company logo tattooed on various parts of their bodies). REI, a retailer of outdoor gear, sporting goods and recreation equipment, centers its mission on outdoor adventure and stewardship, and it attracts employees who are passionate about these. This creates a culture that continually engages employees and helps improve internal employee referral rates.

2. Hire people who are more likely to fit your organization from a values/culture standpoint.

Embedding values and behaviors into candidate identification, interviewing and assessment practices inculcates new staff more quickly into the organization. Southwest Airlines places disproportionate weight on each candidate's personality and spirit during its evaluation process. The company hires for personality, concentrating on recruiting people with great attitudes, people skills and sense of humor across all positions in the organization. Applicants go through interviews with managers, front-line employees, and even customers to assess cultural fit.

3. Focus the onboarding process on assimilation.

Implementing a process to ensure managers meet with new staff on start dates, have working environment prepared including technology and are assigned "buddies" to help new staff with acclimation and introductions to key people in the organization. For new hires at companies such as Cisco, there's no delay spent figuring out what to do on your start date—your colleagues, workspace, technology, and a buddy are ready to receive you. This accelerates time to full productivity and reduction of learning curves for new employees. At W. L. Gore & Associates, a global technology-driven manufacturer, each new hire is assigned a sponsor who has made a commitment to help the newcomer become successful as quickly as possible. They mentor new hires to find opportunities and be responsible for their own careers.

4. Train (and retrain) front-line leaders on effective performance management practices

Companies must ensure that their employees have line of sight from the work they do to the bigger strategic goals of the organization and/or business unit. Leaders can help connect the dots by educating employees on the business, making company performance data available, identifying drivers of performance, and showing how what employees do affects them. i4cp member company Hertz trains all its managers on how to work with employees to set individual goals and give feedback. Line of sight between employee and organizational goals and performance creates a greater sense of ownership among employees and establishes transparency about executive leadership actions and objectives.

5. Involve employees in organizational strategy.

Listening to employees is essential to increasing engagement. Some organizations do this formerly through an employee council to gather inputs and feedback from employee representatives on the organization's strategy and plans. Others use focus groups, town halls and other vehicles that encourage employees to voice feedback and submit ideas for improvements. One-on-one interactions between employees and leaders are also important. 3M, also an i4cp member company, trains managers to involve employees in decision-making. These approaches build and sustain employee trust, a condition of engagement, and promote ownership of organizational strategic goals among employees.

6. Focus on developing better leaders and managers.

Training managers in coaching and mentoring skills such as giving and receiving feedback, conducting performance appraisal meetings, addressing employee performance issues, and employee goal-setting equips them to become better at engaging employees. 3M emphasizes skills to build employee engagement in all its leadership classes and through mentoring initiatives such as "Leaders Teaching Leaders". Embedding engagement awareness and skills in leaders ensures that engagement is part of the day-to-day management process rather than an annual measurement event.

7. Hold leaders accountable for engagement.

The tone of an organization's culture is set by its leadership and the basis upon which employee engagement is built (or not). If the conduct of the organization's leadership is in conflict with the messages being sent to the workforce, investments in building engagement with employees are wasted. Tie engagement scores of direct reports and/or business unit to appraisals and rewards. i4cp member Jack-in-the-Box shares engagement scores with managers quarterly and makes the scores part of each managers' formal assessment process. Such practices reinforce the importance of engagement with and by leaders, sending the message that what is measured truly matters.

8. Provide ample learning options and opportunities.

Learning is a powerful driver of engagement for many employees—the more opportunities the better. To stoke engagement, establish development plans and career paths for all job roles. Offer blended approaches of classroom, online, and experiential learning. Provide career development support including online portals and tools and coaching and mentoring. Organizations such as REI and W.L. Gore attract and keep highly engaged entrepreneurial talent by providing stretch assignments and formal mentors to accelerate and guide career development. These approaches build commitment to the organization as a place to learn and grow.

9. Use social and collaborative tools.

Social media provides a vehicle for organizational transparency and open communication. It also reinforces key engagement drivers as well as surfaces issues that may soon (or already does) impact engagement. Implement a social media rich intranet to facilitate quicker communication, information sharing, collaboration and connecting team members to communities or groups in which they have interest. Use social media and collaborative tools to tap into individual diversity and unique creativity of your workforce. Says Arkadi Kuhlmann, Founder, ING Direct USA, "We wanted to hire ‘workers,' but ‘human beings' show up. Social media is driving that. Work is becoming an expression of personal values."

10. Prioritize and communicate ongoing employee recognition and rewards.

Making employees feel valued and appreciated is another surefire way to increase their engagement. Implement programs such as spot rewards, through which managers can reward employees who go above and beyond. Spotlight employees (e.g. in a company newsletter) who consistently demonstrate organizational values and/or come up with innovative ideas that improve company performance.

Employee Engagement: Way More than an Annual Survey Score

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:00:00 UTC

New i4cp research reveals specific practices used by high-performance organizations to drive engagement and measure its impact on revenue growth.

The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), a research organization that focuses on revealing the people practices that drive market performance, has released new research that details how engagement at high-performance organizations is promoted by aligning culture, strategy and performance; all of which work together to drive business results. In fact, high-performance organizations are more than 4.5 times more likely than low-performance organizations (63% vs. 13%) to measure the impact of engagement on revenue growth.

i4cp's new report, Employee Engagement Strategies and Practices, reveals four essential practices that high-performance organizations implement that have a positive impact on overall employee engagement. At these high-performance organizations, engagement is the result of a series of activities that are embedded into every step of the employee life cycle; from portrayal of the employer brand, recruiting, and employee onboarding, to leadership, learning and development, performance management, and rewards and recognition.

A critical element of alignment is a corporate culture that makes employee engagement the responsibility of frontline managers and top leadership rather than an activity wholly owned by human resources. Frontline managers are the linchpin for building and sustaining engagement, which is why one of the best employee engagement practices supported by i4cp research is to include engagement as part of each manager's performance review--high-performance organizations are twice as likely as low-performance organizations (40% vs. 19%) to do this.

In addition to revealing specific actions organizations should take to drive engagement, Employee Engagement Strategies and Practices also includes detailed case studies from Jack in the Box, 3M and Rio Tinto, which offers a behind-the-scenes peek into how these high-performance organizations are actively driving engagement.

More information about this study can be found on the i4cp website, and i4cp members have exclusive access to download the full report now.

Infographic: 5 Tips for Accelerating High-Potential Employees

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:34:00 UTC

How are you developing your high-potential employees? Do you have a formal process in place to ensure proper identification and development of the right talent for future leadership?

The latest research from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) outlines a five-step framework for creating a competitive edge by accelerating the leadership development of high-potential employees based on the practices of high-performance organizations.

Check out the infographic below to see five tips for accelerating leadership readiness in high-performing organizations. i4cp members can also check out the full study, Accelerating High-Potential Employees on the Path to Leadership, for more in-depth strategies and case studies from some of the world's top companies.

Not an i4cp member yet? Contact us to find out how to get your organization on the path to better productivity and improved market performance.