August 2008
In this Issue:
Ten Great Strategies To Keep Your Good People
Talent: The Strategy To Keep It
By Stephen J. Blakesley
- Make sure everyone knows what is expected of them. Have a clear, concise description of the job and the expectations of the person in that job.
- Let your talented people experience other jobs within the organization. Take advantage of the multiple skills your talented people possess.
- Make sure your people have all the tools and knowledge necessary to do the job right. Know their strengths and their physical needs.
- Make sure you have a fast track for distributing important information to your people. Nothing turns off talent quicker than to find out about company strategy after the fact.
- Know what your people can and will do. Give them the opportunity to do those things everyday.
- Freely give personal encouragement publicly and privately. Identify key players and spend time with them.
- Give managers the responsibility of having a development plan for talented people on their team and assume a partnership role with the employee to get it done.
- Get to know people and continually update your understanding of your key people. Revisit people on a regular basis; their needs and wants change.
- Train managers in productivity coaching and hold managers accountable for talent development within their units.
- Teach and train managers in the art of High Touch. People want to be respected, recognized, and rewarded for outstanding performance.
© 2007 Target Training International, Ltd.
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People Skills for the Technical Person
By Art Schoeck
How many times today do we hear “They really know what they are doing technically, but they simply have no people skills” during the discussion of a coworker’s career? We would like to have the best of both worlds—good technical skills and good people skills—but a survey of today’s managers quickly concludes it is all too rare we find such an individual. Why?
Though companies base 80% of their hiring decision on the technical skills —education, skills, training and experience—85% of turnover is due to BEHAVIORAL incompatibility. That is, we hire people whose technical skills are sufficient, but we fail to identify or analyze the people skills required. Compounding the problem is that the behavioral style most comfortable for the more technical positions is naturally less comfortable in the people skills department. That is, what makes a person enjoy technical work is the desire to look at “things” logically (versus emotionally). If we are logical, we make a decision by first, gathering all the facts. Then we study and analyze the data, research, test, check the details, and finally make a decision that is incapable of being incorrect. The most important goal is to be correct, the biggest fear—to be wrong!
Other styles may value beating deadlines at all costs, keeping people happy and motivated, keeping things the same to avoid conflict. But to the more technical people - being correct and accurate takes all precedent—it’s only logical.
Most people who view “things” very logically also view “people” the same way. While most Americans fall into the group that views “people” (as well as “things”) emotionally, most technicians view both people and things logically. This influences the way they both perceive and communicate with others. Instead of the emotional factors of optimism, warmth, enthusiasm, inspiration and extroversion, they have the logical factors of reflection, facts, incisiveness and skepticism (matter-of-fact). “People might talk a good game, but prove it to me; actions speak louder than words.” Since they assume that this approach is logical, and therefore correct and appropriate, they are surprised when others describe them as somewhat aloof or cold. They can point to the good relationships they do have, but further examination usually reveals that those relationships are limited to others with their same style - other engineers, scientists, computer enthusiasts, auditors, and quality control people. They indeed share the common value of a drive to always be logical—perfection. Relationships outside their styles are far more uncommon and usually the result of friends of a spouse or relative of different style.
The technician’s lack of people skills can be self-correcting within his/her own natural behavioral style - a style which requires gathering and analyzing data. The technician gathers and analyzes input on behavioral styles different than his/her own to understand how to better communicate with and motivate others. Learning how to identify different styles and how to adjust their styles to better communicate and motivate is the prime directive.
© 2007 Target Training International, Ltd.
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Personal Accountability on the Job
The Key Factor to Superior Performance
Personal accountability is not only an important skill to possess, but it is also in high demand. In over 95% of the jobs we studied, we found personal accountability to be one of the top seven personal skills that are required for superior performance on the job. Most companies would agree that responsibility for actions is a major component to success on the job and will look for this skill in any employee review or selection situation. Unfortunately, personal accountability can be difficult to gauge and is often times not genuine until you can scratch through the surface.
If personal accountability is so important to success on the job, yet difficult to find, how can we look for this skill in today’s talent?
To help you identify the skill of personal accountability, consider using the following interview questions in your selection process or employee evaluation.
- What person from history do you most admire for taking the blame for a failure? What did taking the blame do for that person?
- Give me an example of someone you know whose personal actions led to disastrous results. How answerable is that person for what happened? What advice would you give to that person?
- What is the worst business decision you ever made? What made it the worst? What would have helped you to avoid making that decision?
While questions like this might help you take a guess at the level of personal accountability an individual has, it is best to get a truly accurate picture of the skills they have through a individual assessment process. This will eliminate all bias and give you statistical results that will easily help you take the next step in talent management. Soft skills assessments and 360 degree surveys are commonly used in business practices today to accurately assess personal accountability and the many other skills that make each person unique.
© 2007 Target Training International, Ltd.
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