Category: Uncategorized

Why Equity AND Equality Matter in Your Company and Ways to Enhance Both

#EmbraceEquity represents the focus of the 2023 International Women’s Day (IWD) campaign. Equity isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have, in every aspect of society. For this to happen we
should first understand the difference between equity and equality.

Equity and equality are two highly related, but distinctly different concepts important for
creating a fair and inclusive workplace.

Equality speaks to treating everyone the same, regardless of their background or circumstances. For instance, in the workplace, employees may be provided with equal opportunities, resources and support to succeed. This could be in training opportunities, the same benefits and be held to the same performance standards. Equal pay for equal work has long (too long) been a quest for women seeking the same pay for similar levels of work.

Equity, on the other hand, recognizes that all employees don’t start from the same place, and some may require additional support or resources to achieve equal outcomes. Equity aims to create a level playing field by addressing systemic barriers by providing targeted support to those who may have been historically disadvantaged or marginalized. In the workplace, a company might provide additional mentoring or training opportunities to employees from underrepresented groups or establish programs to support employees with disabilities or caregiving responsibilities.

In short, while equality focuses on treating everyone the same, equity recognizes that people
have different needs and aims to provide targeted support to create a more level playing field.
In the workplace, both are needed to create a fair and inclusive environment.

Now what? Beyond the definitions, here are a few examples of how to promote greater equity in your organization:

1. Diversify your workforce: Intentionally recruit, hire and promote employees from diverse backgrounds. This may involve expanding your recruitment efforts to each underrepresented groups, using blind screening processes and creating inclusive job descriptions that don’t have gender or racial biases. Matching the job duties to behavioral profiles not only helps hire the right person, but it also removes bias from the process.

2. Recognize different work styles, motivations and needs: Just as your children may have wildly different personalities and needs, the same is true of your employees. Use personality style tools to understand their preferences, interaction styles and how to coach them to bring their best to work. Do they want time for reflection or interaction? Who likes collaborating vs. taking charge? The person who thrives on flexibility is not going to want to be confined by stringent rules. (Give it a try with a free behavioral assessment.)

3. Provide training and development: Provide education on topics such as unconscious bias (yes, we all have this), cultural competency and inclusive leadership to help leaders and employees understand and address their own biases and find ways to promote a more inclusive workplace. Other training on business, technical or communication areas may help employees develop their skills and advance their careers.

4. Offer flexible work arrangements: Remote and hybrid work, flexible schedules and job sharing can help employees balance their work and personal responsibilities. This can be especially helpful for those with caregiving responsibilities, disabilities or other needs requiring accommodation. It’s also a great way to attract and retain employees in this new world of work in the post-covid era, regardless of personal situation.

5. Establish Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): ERGs are employee-led groups that provide a space or employees with shared backgrounds or interests to connect and support one another, and advocate for change within the organization. ERGs can help promote a sense of belonging and inclusion for those who may otherwise feel isolated or marginalized. I recently led the offsite for the leadership team of a large ERG for Mental Health and Wellbeing for a global organization. Others could be for women, people of color, nationalities, LGBTQ, disabilities, wellbeing, working parents, etc.

6. Conduct regular audits for pay and benefits: Regularly review your compensation practices to ensure employees are paid fairly and equitably for their work. Go beyond job titles to consider similar complexity and importance of the job as roles may attract more people of a certain gender. Also look at your benefit plans to offer a variety of alternatives. Tuition assistance, English as a second language, child care, elder care, EAPs and various wellbeing benefits could be part of the menu of offerings.

These are just a few examples of how leaders can #EmbraceEquity in the workplace. It’s an
ongoing process that starts with awareness and requires commitment, investment and
continuous evaluation and improvement. Not sure where to start? Ask your employees. Or
contact us to learn more.

Other Resources and Articles on International Women’s Day to embrace all year long:

1. International Women’s Day Website
Share your #EmbraceEquity image, video, resources, presentation, and articles across
social media using #IWD2023 #EmbraceEquity to encourage others to help forge an
inclusive world.
2. International Women’s Day: How do we embrace equity in today’s technology sector? Forbes, March 1, 2023.
3. Employee Resource Groups: Your Complete Guide. Indeed

Create high-impact, meaningful team offsite meetings with these tips.

Team offsite sessions can range from drunken boondoggles to death by PowerPoint and everything in between. To clarify, I don’t host either type. I cringe every time I hear stories of boring, useless, toxic, draining meetings where companies spend tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars on events that yielded little to no positive outcomes.

I have found that aligning people, purpose and pleasure in the right ways brings fresh insights, commitments and sustainable results.

Last week, I had the privilege of facilitating a planning session called, “Winning Together: Aligning for Success” with leaders in sales, engineering, operations, and marketing for a global engineering company I’ve worked with for the past few years. As we were pulling together a fun, video summary for the team, it occurred to me to share tips with others on ways to design a successful team offsite.

Clearly Define Success:Team offsite sessions are pulled together for purposes ranging from strategic planning, restructuring, transforming culture, team alignment, change leadership and more. Be clear about the purpose for holding the meeting. really think about (and ask the team) what success will look like when the meeting is done. Then design all phases of the event from pre-session communications, in-session activities, social interaction and post-session follow-up to accomplish the outcomes you want to achieve.

Align People and Celebrate Diversity: Resist diving into meaty, sometimes contentious work topics and start with activities for people to get to know one another and themselves better. I like to use science-based behavioral profiles to raise awareness of each person’s style. With respect and humor, we tap into individual strengths and point out when they get in the way. This group brought a wealth of diversity from different countries, disciplines, ages, ethnicity and behavioral styles. We invited others who work with this team representing Operations, South America and Europe to provide cross-functional collaboration. There’s no finger-pointing to “those people” when those people are in the room!

Build on Strengths to Envision a Compelling Future: People and organizations move in the direction of what they focus on most. Rather than dumpster-diving into problems, ask them to pair off and share stories of success. You will feel the pride soar in the room as people recognize one another for stepping up and going above and beyond and as they recall their own moments of courage and impact. Then, build on these strengths, assets and pride to imagine a compelling, even mind-blowing future. Encourage provocative thinking even if you don’t know how you will get there. Have some fun with this and resist judging each idea as it comes up. You can refine and come up with the tactics later.

Build on Ideas: Don’t shut them down. Yes, you likely need to remind people how to brainstorm and set up activities to poke holes in current thinking to get to the possibilities of what can be. Years ago, working at Gartner, we stressed a strategic imperative of “provocative thought leadership.” Encouraging debate with trust and respect pushes through conventional thinking.

Have Fun! Schedule social time together to allow people to get to know one another in different settings. Bring in humor through stories, fun activities and being approachable. Resist the urge to pack the agenda with business topics. Leave a little space between the logs for the fires to burn.

Expect the Unexpected: Technical hiccups, new priorities, announcement of a restructuring and bad weather may shift even the best laid plans or require you to flex in the moment. If we learned anything in the past few years it was that “shift happens” so just go with it grace and humor.

Commit to Collective Action: Each person should leave the session with clear commitments on actions they will take to help the team accomplish their goals and how these will be cascaded into the organization. Discuss how they will take insights and goals to the teams doing the work. Aligning commitments will continue to break down functional silos. I also ask them to make a commitment on how they will develop further as a leader to help this team align for success.

Don’t DIY It: At the risk of sounding self-serving, I beg you to call in an outside expert to design and facilitate your team offsite. You have expertise in what? sales, engineering, finance, HR, whatever-and are probably quite good in that area. The right external facilitator will partner with you to get the best from the experience and encourage open dialogue that likely won’t come when the boss or human resources is leading the session. Contact us to find out how we create exceptional, impactful sessions for our clients.

When done well, team offsite sessions provide exceptional opportunities to strengthen relationships, shift minds and surface new opportunities to align and succeed. My parting words to this team and my advice to you is to….

“Be bold, be creative, and do amazing things together!”

And stop sifting through gravel!

“We’ve got big goals to accomplish, yet I keep finding people working on all these little projects that don’t really matter.”

This was the sentiment of one CEO I spoke to last week who is already feeling the pressure of meeting this year’s goals.

People spend time on less critical work for lots of reasons. They don’t get it. They don’t agree (and may be passive aggressive in ignoring you.) They are good at doing some things and are a bit afraid of the new assignment. Their boss or other leader keeps throwing tasks over the wall. Or they just don’t really know what the focus is, how important it is and how they need to play a role.

In working with senior leaders and teams on building and growing thriving organizations, we’ve found a few critical levers you must pull to align and engage people around these, “big rocks.” No surprise, this starts with your leadership team. If your leaders aren’t fully aligned on and committed to the goals and to one another, you will spend your time dealing with renegades running personal agendas and functional silos. If you incorporate these 10 practices, you will exponentially increase alignment and success, and will have a lot more fun doing it.

1. Get Crystal Clear. Be as clear as the priciest diamond you can find (to continue the rock metaphor – and conflict-free of course). Clearly define the most important goals. Describe what needs to happen to achieve these goals. Take the high-level goal into your larger initiatives or milestones. Once you’ve clarified, clarify again, and again, and again.
2. Align Leaders on the Rocks. Telling them isn’t enough. Every leader must be clear on the priorities. You also need to uncover their perspectives on what will get in the way and what else they plan to continue to work on that may not directly deliver on one of the big rocks. Know the obstacles and have a plan to address these.
3. Align Leaders as a Team. Every leader needs to understand their own style, motivations, and concerns and those of others on the team. And they need to view the leadership team (not their functional group) as their “first team.” Work together to establish the rules of the road to achieve the goals together and become a high-performance team.
4. Shape the Culture as You Go. Even if you didn’t put a people and culture component to your strategic plan (and you really must), your culture can make or break your success. Engage people early and often to rally around important goals and emerge as a thriving culture. What needs to change for us to succeed? How are we unintentionally rewarding other behaviors? What could the unintended consequences be if we go about this in the wrong way? (You’ve seen this movie before-right?)
5. Show the Line of Sight. Every person in your organization should have a “line of sight” between their work and at least one of these big rocks. Understanding how one’s work matters helps drive motivation. Those closest to the work, clients or patients know what’s working and what’s quite honestly ridiculous. Clarify what’s most important. Ask them for ideas and empower them to think and act.
6. Fix the Talent Gaps. What’s getting in the way? Functional silos? Turnover? Can’t find people? Incentivizing the wrong behaviors? Align people and teams across functions to get things done. Quickly assess your people practices for strategic misalignment and address those most critical to achieving your goals.
7. Minimize the Gravel. In Steven Covey’s big rocks first strategy, he mentions adding big rocks first, then adding gravel, sand, and water. Yet, if you completely fill the bucket, there’s no space to breathe, let alone think, recharge, connect, and reflect. Say no to or delay less important projects and find ways for greater efficiencies to allow people more time to focus on big rocks while not filling up the entire vessel.
8. Drive Responsibility and Accountability. Be clear from the start on who is responsible for what. Insist that your leaders to do the same as they cascade work and collaborate across functions. Meet with leaders 1:1 and as a team regularly to ensure clarity (yes, again), to uncover gaps and obstacles, and to hold them accountable for their commitments.
9. Celebrate the Big and Small Wins. Celebrating the small wins brings the momentum needed to achieve the bigger goals. Encourage people to hit above their weight class and take risks. Appreciate acts of courage and learn from failures. Have some fun and appreciate the work your people are doing!
10. Become a better organization. The good news is that following these practices (even if less than perfectly executed) will bring you a stronger leadership team, culture, and business. You’ll build muscle along the way as you pick up and break down those big rocks.

In my three decades of working with leaders and as a leader, I’ve found that the greatest threat to any organization’s success is a lack of alignment. I firmly believe that a leader’s primary responsibility is to create an environment where others can thrive. Embracing these practices will set you on a path to an aligned, thriving organization. If you are serious about making this happen, then let’s talk. An exploratory conversation will bring possibilities into laser focus.

Here are some related resources you may be interested in:

Leadership Team Alignment Requires this Foundational Element

There’s a formula to organizational success

Align Leaders and Strategy to Navigate Challenging Times

25 Tips for Remote Employee Engagement

The New Normal: Aligning Remote Work Trends with Your Business

Steps Boards can take for CEO Succession Planning

The pandemic, and the global turmoil left in its wake, certainly made it clear that anything can happen. Implementing these leading practices for CEO succession planning can ensure the organization is ready for unexpected and planned departures.

Regardless of outside forces, board members recognize that even the best strategy unravels and the entire organization can be jolted out of alignment without the right CEO in place. Yet some boards find themselves unprepared for a CEO exit, despite having succession as one of their key responsibilities. Several factors may get in the way of having a solid plan in place. Often more immediate challenges and performance needs capture their attention. Or the board may not be aligned on succession strategies. For some, raising the issue to a current CEO may feel uncomfortable.

Here are several leading practices your board can adopt to create and maintain effective CEO succession plans. Read on to download a more detailed description and further insights.

1. Identify who owns the CEO succession process.

• While the entire board may want to weight in on this critical decision, it’s more efficient and effective to designate a smaller group to lead the succession efforts while regularly engaging board members. This could be an existing board committee or a special committee for this purpose.
• Agree on the criteria to clearly define roles, responsibilities and how decisions will be made by this committee.
• Provide regular updates to the full board on the process, plans and candidates.
• The current CEO may have some involvement such as identifying and developing internal talent. In the case of a planned departure such as retirement, the CEO may suggest potential candidates and ensure practices are in place for a smooth transition.

2. Define the criteria for selecting the new CEO

• Agree on the experience, skills knowledge and leadership traits the new CEO needs to accomplish the organization’s current and future strategic goals.
• Refer to the strategic plan to help identify the traits most needed in a CEO to accomplish the organization’s strategic priorities.
• Consider changes the organization and the industry may experience over the next 5 years.
• Review the organization’s structure to determine if changes can or should be made to shift responsibilities or add positions. If the CEO also serves as the Board Chair, consider if this is the best structure going forward.
• Actively source diverse candidates that vary in race, age, gender and ethnicity.
• Consider the type of leader needed to shape the culture whether this be to nurture the existing culture or transform it to enhance performance.
• Identify the traits the new CEO would need to build relationships with and influence key stakeholder groups.
• Consider other parameters such as the number of external board or leadership roles the CEO can hold without interfering with the CEO’s responsibilities and any potential conflicts of interest.

• Develop structured interview questions, determine who will be involved in the interview process, including the current CEO.
• Consider using team analytics to explore how the candidate’s style may influence or align with others on the leadership team and board members.
• Once a process for selection has been set up, ensure it is being used consistently to be able to make sound decisions and treat each candidate equitably.
• If using a search firm, provide clear criteria, questions to ask, assessments to include and stress the desire for diverse candidates. Have references conducted by a board member, not the search firm.

4. Ensure a smooth transition to onboard, introduce and support the new CEO.

• Ensure a transition plan is in place to help the new CEO get up to speed on the organization’s strategy, culture, goals, challenges, and stakeholders.
• Include a communication and change plan. Communicate the change and support of the board for the new CEO to all stakeholders- employees, media, members, etc.
• Consider the impact of promoting one internal candidate over another or in selecting an external candidate over an internal one.
• Examine a few potential change and risk scenarios and identify contingency plans to minimize disruptions.

5. Have an ongoing CEO succession plan and pipeline.

• Let the new CEO know that succession planning remains a continuous process.
• Be transparent about the organization’s succession process and responsibility.
• Review the succession plan at least annually with the entire board.
• Adopt these practices to bring greater effectiveness and equity.
• Constantly scan the external talent market and build relationships that can help identify leaders to meet current or future needs and increase the capabilities and diversity of the organization’s leadership team.
• Put an emergency or interim succession plan in place in the event the CEO leaves unexpectedly or is unable to work due to health or personal reasons.

Download the full report:

Sources:

1. “How the best boards approach CEO succession planning- And why it’s become more critical than ever.” PwC. September 2021.
2. Kelly, Jack. “CEOs are Quitting and Joining The Great Resignation- Here’s Why.” Forbes. June 29, 2022.
3. Hatfield, Steve, Fisher, Jen, Silverglate, Paul H. “The C-suite’s role in well-being.” Deloitte Insights. June 22, 2022.
4. “April ’22 CEO Report: CEO Exits Hit Highest on Record as Recession Fears Loom. Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. May 18, 2022.

For an increasing number of knowledge workers these scenarios are the new normal. Large numbers of Gen Z and Millennials consider their workplace to be anywhere with a strong wifi signal and a good background. A child accidentally walking into your video backdrop, or standing up to reveal you’re wearing sweatpants with your suit jacket on a video call were both once immense faux-pas at the beginning of the pandemic, but is now something most have seen, experienced or understand. The reason for this is that remote jobs grew from 4% of all high-paying jobs before the pandemic to about 9% at the end of 2020, and more than 15% today (1). Projections are forecasting 25% of all professional jobs in North America will be remote at the end of 2022 and will continue to increase through 2023 (1).

               Burnout is at an all-time high, and the Great Resignation still looms, but remote work seems to be the salve to this open wound for some jobs. Employees are flexing their power and are demanding better pay and flexibility. 4.5 million people quit their jobs voluntarily in November 2021 (2). Many business leaders are hesitant to hand over the reins to employees on when and where they work due to business implications that are still being parsed out. Yet 90 % of remote workers surveyed in the Owl Labs 2021 State of Remote Work Report say they were as or more productive working remotely compared to in-office (3). Not only that, over 80% said that they would even be willing to take a pay cut in order to be able to work remotely because it makes them happier and is better for their mental health.

Takeaways for Business Leaders:

01 Explore ways to integrate remote work. While not every job lends itself to this model, many workers will hold out for remote work opportunities (1). If you want to attract and retain employees, seriously consider how you can offer remote or hybrid work opportunities. This means also aligning your in-office and remote work cultures. Consider ways to build teamwork and rapport between remote and in-person employees through virtual team-building and team strategy sessions. Schedule quarterly team meetings for in-person socialization and team building.

02 Align your hiring and onboarding practices to take into account remote work. Create structured interviews that ask questions to assess whether someone will thrive in a remote work environment in their potential role so you can have confidence in a new remote hire. Before recruiting and attracting new employees, determine which roles can be remote or hybrid and the criteria. Design your onboarding practices to help the new hire not only learn their job, but also create a strong alignment and bond with the manager, the rest of the team and the organization.

03 Align your business strategy with the right workforce model. Concerns about the unknown future of work can be managed by considering scenarios and weighing the pros and cons of remote or hybrid work. Be creative when thinking about the different ways work can be done and try to avoid all or nothing thinking whenever possible. This may allow you to attract and retain top talent and perhaps save a bundle on office space and travel costs. Many employees are also more productive working from home. Business strategies aligned with people strategies have a greater chance of success. Consider changing and possible workforce models in your quarterly or annual strategic planning sessions.  

WORKS CITED:

1. Remote Work Is Here To Stay And Will Increase Into 2023, Experts Say
2. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary
3. Owl Labs State of Remote Work 2021

OTHER RELATED ARTICLES:

• Balancing Autonomy and Structure for Remote Employees
• Burnout and stress are everywhere

Re-entering the formal workforce after years starting and supporting a family was a daunting prospect. I had chosen to throw myself wholeheartedly into managing a household, moving back and forth internationally, juggling an entrepreneurial art career, and raising a young child. Each year the obstacle of returning to an office seemed more and more challenging with a longer gap on my resume, then came the pandemic, so I delayed my return.

However, in the process of becoming a mother and navigating international moves, I gained a completely new identity, strength in areas I didn’t even know existed, and an ability to create effective processes. Would anyone in the workplace understand or even acknowledge this growth that happened inside of me during these years outside of a traditional office? I wasn’t so sure anyone would.

This isn’t a story unique to myself, there is a reoccurring v-shaped employment pattern for women during times like the summer where childcare challenges are more present. In fact, around 10 million US mothers living with their school-age children were not actively working in January 2021 of the pandemic due to the industries many women work in, and due to the extreme childcare challenges of shut-downs during COVID. This drastic shift in women leaving the workforce has not only negatively impacted the career trajectory for many women, but has also negatively impacted the businesses and organizations they left. What left along with these women was their talent and institutional knowledge.

Recent research by Angela Passarelli and Spela Trefalt has brought to light a staggering reality: the ‘Motherhood Penalty.” An article profiling this research by Elizabeth Weingarten describes this phenomena as employers not understanding the link between “new mother,” and “leadership potential,” instead thinking that motherhood leads to a depreciation in leadership skills.

Weingarten, E. (2022, May 4). This may be the way to cancel the ‘motherhood penalty’ and develop leaders. Fast Company.

Are there some resumes sitting in the stack with gaps from time away from the workforce to raise a family that haven’t even been considered? Are there women on your team juggling daycare drop offs and pickups after sleepless nights that might have an extraordinary ability to multitask, persevere through challenges, AND read the room in an instant that could potentially lead a team to new heights?

Weingarten says Neuroscience research suggests that, “[…] new parents undergo changes in their brain that allow them to be more present, to empathize with others to collaborate more effectively, and even to respond to stress in a more adaptive way.”

Luckily for me, our CEO and President Diana Rivenburgh saw that there were unique skills I’d honed in the years of early motherhood that could be an asset. She not only hired me onto the team, but has consistently worked to mentor, coach, and provide resources for me to translate the leadership skills I learned becoming a mother. If more leaders had the same awareness and understanding that not only are these skills transferrable to the professional arena, but could potentially be an asset, the script on motherhood and leadership potential could be completely flipped.

This coaching I’ve received from Diana is exactly the kind of coaching that Passarelli and Trefalt’s research suggests can support mothers through this transitional period of their careers and impact women’s desire to stay in the workplace after returning from leave. Maternal coaching can change the story on the role of motherhood and its impact on leadership qualities and close the gap of retaining talented employees in the transitional period of early motherhood.

So how can leaders make this shift to maternal coaching, and when?

Passarelli suggests a coaching program should, “start as soon as the pregnancy begins […] That’s when the identity shift happens, that’s when [women] begin to face major inequities at work […].”

Passarelli and Trefalt also recommend that coaching be provided to both women AND their managers which could help a manager avoid well-intentioned behaviors driven by sexism.

The key takeaways exist mainly in awareness of leaders who have young mothers or new mothers on their team. When leaders shift their own mindset and view motherhood as an asset for leadership rather than a roadblock, cultural change can occur throughout the organization.

One way to easily make sure young mothers or new mothers aren’t being screened out of the hiring process or the leadership ladder would be to assess your employees on the drives, needs and talents they bring to the table rather than their status as a parent or the gaps on their resume.

It has been a true privilege to work for Diana and with our clients at Strategic Imperatives to help leaders gain awareness, institute fair and repeatable hiring practices that consider all candidates, and to find those with the best fit for their organizations and the role. Beyond the job offer, the best leaders and managers institute strong onboarding, development, coaching and mentoring practices to engage and develop employees throughout their career trajectory. It’s a win-win for these organizations and their people.

Works Cited:

MISTY L. HEGGENESS, J. F. (2021). Tracking Job Losses for Mothers of School-Age Children During a Health Crisis. United States Census Bureau.

Weingarten, E. (2022, May 4). This may be the way to cancel the ‘motherhood penalty’ and develop leaders. Fast Company.

A recent study revealed that a staggering 76% of executives do not believe they have the right people throughout their company to execute their business strategy.

CEOs, CHROs and other business leaders I speak with feel the pain when they can’t find the right people or keep the talent they have. One CEO client described finding and keeping good people as a “life or death” risk for his business. Desperate times don’t need to resort to desperation hiring. A lack of alignment causes great pain in organizations. Alignment starts by putting the right people in every role.

The good news is that leaders who believe they have the right people to execute their business strategy are experiencing 42% less turnover than those lacking the right talent.

Here are a few ways you can align people to jobs with the right people in the right seats:

Get fully aligned on what the job is before you determine the candidate requirements

Before jumping in to describe the years of experience or education required, start by getting really clear on what the job functions are. What will this person be doing that’s important and common to the role? It’s more important look for equivalent experience, skills and the right behavioral and cognitive match for the job than whether or not the candidate has a degree. Make sure all those involved in the hiring process are fully aligned on the position and the candidate qualifications.

For more than a decade IBM has been eliminating the need for a degree as a job requirement for many of its jobs. According to its CHRO, about 50% of US jobs no longer require a degree. They are more concerned with the skills, experience and fit for the job and their culture. NEC had this practice in place in the 1990s for just about all US positions including at the leadership level.

Select for fit aligned with all key aspects of the job

Having the right background on paper won’t matter if there’s a poor fit with the job duties. Assessment instruments appropriate for selection such as the behavioral and cognitive tools provided by The Predictive Index provide rich information on the candidate and how well they align to the position profile. For instance, a sales position may call for someone with more of a “hunter” profile than a “farmer.”

Understand fit with the team, the manager and the culture

Beyond aligning to the job, explore how the candidate might fit with the manager, the team and the company’s culture. Here’s a resource for insights on how different styles lead, work and operate within a team.  Consider if you need more of the same types of styles on a team or if greater diversity of styles might bring some balance and fill gaps. Your questions should certainly explore a cultural fit and alignment with the organization’s values.

Attract Diverse Candidates

You may think you are already struggling to fill positions on teams with qualified, available candidates, yet alone those with diverse backgrounds. However, you may be overlooking great opportunities to attract and retain diverse talent and create more inclusive cultures. Consider practices you can take to uncover bias and gaps in your current talent acquisition approaches. Expand your view of diversity beyond visible traits of gender and race to include those with disabilities, the LGBTQ community and multiple generations. Remove any non-essential requirements from your job postings that may serve to discourage diverse applicants. Expand your recruitment sources to add other organizations, geographies and educational institutions.

Be extra diligent when hiring leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have a direct and profound impact not only on business results, but also on culture. It’s easier to get a sense of a candidate’s background and experience than it is to ascertain their leadership style. Understanding the styles of the team members may also reveal how different leaders can align with and shape the results and performance of the existing team. Structured interview questions, pre-hire behavioral and cognitive assessments and careful reference checking can come together to reveal traits that can make or break parts of your business.

For heaven’s sake, train interviewers to interview effectively!

Come on now – we’ve all been candidates being interviewed by people who had horrible selection skills. Years of interviewing experience doesn’t necessarily translate to doing it well. It’s a mystery to me why we leave critical hiring decisions in the hands of people who have not been properly trained. Train leaders, managers and talent acquisition professionals to probe deeply to understand a candidate’s experience and style using structured interviews, explore the individual’s motivations as they move through their career and tap into the rich data a valid behavioral assessment provides. IBM currently requires all those involved in the interview and selection process to be certified in the “Select for IBM” program. The training reinforces looking for skills over degrees and eliminating some of the bias that can appear in the selection process.

It’s time to power up the Talent Acquisition strategy, team and tools!

It’s never been more important to have a highly qualified, professional talent acquisition team, strategy and tools in place. No longer is the “recruiter” simply an entry level role for the Human Resources department. It’s time to up the game and get beyond “post and pray”.

These tips combine methods and tools to help you fit the right people in the right seat, aligned with your organization’s values. And yes, I’m passionate about assessments! I’ve used them for decades and would not ever hire anyone to work for or with me without them. I included Predictive Index solutions into the Strategic Imperatives solutions because I experienced the power of these tools and analytics as a PI client. Interested in checking these out? Use this link to take a Behavioral Assessment for yourself. It will take just about 6 minutes and you’ll find great value in the insights!

Here are some other really useful (and free) resources to check out:

Download this Guide to Structured Interviews e-book to power up your interview process with these key steps

Sources: Beyond more years of experience than I often admit to, here are several sources used to inform this blog and well worth looking at:

The State of Talent Optimization 2022 Report. 300+ executives reveal the cost of the “Big Quit” and the top drivers of employee retention.

Why IBM Chooses Skills Over Degrees. A Conversation With Nickle LaMoreaux
Chief Human Resources Officer for IBM, CHRO CONVERSATIONS, GALLUP, APRIL 13, 2021

Woods, Arthur, The Great Resignation Doesn’t Have to Threaten Your DE&I Efforts, Harvard Business Review, September 1, 2021

Communication constantly swirls around us in a barrage of text, slack, chat, social and email.  While these can be quite useful and quick, none will substitute for the powerful impact of a one-on-one meeting a leader or manager has with team member.  Yet too many of these meetings fail to make an impact and may come across as just another appointment on the calendar.  Each one-on-one meeting presents a stellar opportunity for alignment and impact.  

The most impactful one-on-one meetings embrace a dual purpose around the person AND the work.  They provide opportunities to solve problems, engage in strategic discussions and check in on key projects.  From a person-centered perspective, they also show team members that you care about them and are supportive of their career and development goals.  

Here are some tips for making these meetings most impactful for you, the employee and the organization:

2. Determine priority topics.   

While a formal agenda might not be necessary, you may get in the habit of sharing topics to discuss in advance important to either of you.  Some may be recurring themes while allowing time for other pressing topics.  At the start of your meeting, you can compare topics and perhaps even agree on time for each.  “Let’s go through these two items in the first 10 minutes so we can spend the rest of the time doing a deeper dive on the third topic.” 

3. Be present and create positive energy.  

Focus fully during the meeting to make the most of the time together and demonstrate you value the individual and their time.  Turn off the phone and alerts coming from your email, calendar and data-generating watch.  Start on a positive note with a compliment or acknowledgement of a recent win or effort.  Beginning with positive energy helps to open the dialogue and put the person at ease.

4. Solve problems and surface solutions.  

One-on-one meetings can be useful to dig deeper into challenges and collaborate on potential solutions.  You may ask the employee in advance to come up with ideas on a challenge the department faces or to describe the challenges they are facing and come up with ideas for solutions.  You’ll discover how the employee solves problems and will learn more about what’s happening a level or two deeper in the organization.  You can use this discussion to offer input and feedback and to identify road blocks that you can remove at your level.   

5. Dig deeper on strategic questions.  

Too many meetings cover issues at a surface, fire-fighting level. When grappling with more strategic issues, you may want to pose a question or topic in advance to allow the person time to gather thoughts.  These could be questions about a product or service, opportunities the company may be missing, a key customer or planning for the leadership offsite.  

6. Be a person talking with a person.  

Engaging as one person to another brings humanity to the discussion.  Everyone has personal challenges and celebrations.  Taking time to share something about you and asking about their life can encourage them to be open if they are facing a stressful situation.  People want to feel a sense of psychological safety and be vulnerable from time to time.  When you as the leader express vulnerability, you provide unspoken permission for your employees to do the same.

7. Engage on career goals and professional development.  

While coaching, feedback and learning often happen in moments of interaction, it’s important to also devote some focused time on development conversations.  This may be every meeting, or every other or in certain sessions.  Provide the individual with a heads up if the topic will be about development.  These personal conversations often require a bit of reflection by the individual to feel prepared.  During the meeting, ask focused, open-ended questions to encourage the employee to express their goals, experiences and challenges.  Ask what you can do to assist.  Offer up ideas after the individual has had a chance to speak to avoid shutting down the dialogue.  Express your confidence in their ability to continue to learn and grow.

8. Align, summarize, and clarify.  

It’s helpful to summarize any agreements you’ve made to ensure you are on the same page.  Include any action items each of you agreed to and clarify the timeframe and follow up.  Referring to commitments from the last meeting encourages accountability for the employee and for your own actions.

9. Acknowledge and appreciate.  

Leave a few minutes at the end of the meeting to express appreciation and acknowledge ideas and efforts.  Avoid generic or inauthentic phrases.  If there’s something specific to recognize, say it.  “I appreciate what you’ve done to ….”   In any case, simply pausing for a few seconds and saying “Thank you” shows you value the person and the interaction you’ve just had.  

Recognizing that the greatest threats to an organization’s success often come from a lack of alignment, the one-on-one meeting provides a venue to get aligned around the work and set up an environment for the individual to thrive.  Leadership requires balancing numerous paradoxes.  Aligning the human and results-driven factors may be among the most critical and the most rewarding.