Caution: Career Derailment Ahead!
Why do executives, managers, and professionals either derail or flounder
and then get shunted off to roles that are out of the mainstream?
Typically it's because they have a psychological blind spot that is all
too visible to others.
Research studies have pegged failure rates for senior executives
at up to 33 percent.
There's a good chance that the descriptions below of potential
derailers will remind you of some key people in your organization:
He lacks effective interpersonal skills. He's -
Insensitive ("He's too abrasive")
Overambitious ("He batters people with his competitiveness; he needs to
be seen as powerful")
Isolated ("He's a perfectionist and seems to do everything his own way")
Volatile ("He comes apart at the seams when under fire")
She has difficulty making tactical shifts. She is -
Mired in detail; thrown by change and innovation; too cautious;
action-averse.
Unable to adapt to those who have different styles.
Conflict-averse; unable to harness conflict constructively, as a
creative medium for change; a poor negotiator.
Over-reliant on one skill, on natural talent, or on just raw energy.
Rigid in response to most situations; for example, blazingly decisive
but without regard for overall organizational strategy.
He
lacks follow-through. He -
Makes a big splash at the front end of a project, then moves on, leaving
a trail of loose ends.
Leaves people hanging because of unmet promises and commitments; not
fully accountable.
Her area has never really gelled. She -
Over-/undermanages (Either as the over-controlling Godmother or as the
benignly neglectful Ostrich; can't collaborate or delegate)
Staffs in her own image ("I have a good gut feeling about him; the
chemistry is right")
Communicates poorly ("She operates like she thinks everyone can read her
mind")
Creates mediocrity (Undermines talented subordinates and/or habitually
hires weak candidates)
Terminate or Turnaround?
So, what can be done with the under-performing employee? Often, the
response is to terminate. But, the company must then absorb the staggering
costs associated with the loss of a key person. These costs include:
Exit costs
Recruiting, hiring, and restart costs
Lost training and development costs
Cascade effect of multiple position shuffles
Opportunity costs, disruption, down time, and lowered morale of the team
Disputed termination litigation
A significantly more effective solution is available
and it prevents the termination costs.
The experiences of our clients have clearly shown that a turnaround
program produces better results. In most cases under-performance is not
the result of an ability deficit. Rather, it typically results from a
person's blind spots. With the proper intervention, the struggling
employee can be turned around and, as a consequence, a number of benefits
accrue to the organization and the individual:
The company is spared the organizational disruption and corporate
expense (frequently exceeding $100K) that inevitably occur with the
termination of a key employee.
The company is protected from the loss of the person's accumulated
industry knowledge, experience, and competitive information.
The turnaround program offers a potent management option for handling a
potentially unpleasant and difficult dilemma.
The turnaround option brings objectivity and behavioral science to bear
on conflict and, thereby, gives the organization and its people a greater
sense of mastery and less apprehension about handling difficult human
problems. The message: "We care, and we can work it out."
It equips the organization with an effective tool for retaining its
human resources, an increasingly critical strategy in an age of a
shrinking human resource pool.
How We Do It
Specializing in human performance, our firm has designed a powerful
individual development program that integrates our core competencies:
Expert software systems that enhance psychological testing and
assessment
Computerized 360° technology
Keen diagnostic skills
Advanced rapport-building methods
Accelerated development strategies
Motivating and creating true behavioral change
By integrating these performance development technologies, we assist the
candidate in assembling the three essential ingredients for high
performance: feedback (both broad and deep), multi-lateral motivation to
make changes, and multi-source change partners for their development
initiative. Together these three elements serve as the infrastructure for
a Blueprint for Action, which guides the employee's achievement of
measurable results.
Turnaround Program: Four Key Steps
I.
Assess
Conduct a series of life-career interviews with the candidate, focusing
on:
personal and work history
interpersonal experiences
attitudes, values, and interests
aspirations
Assess the candidate, using an array of business-based psychological
invento and 360° tools, most of which are computer analyzed.
Integrate performance management data into the assessment. Forge a
consensus on the problem areas and the turnaround objectives.
II. Plan
Deliver an in-depth, confidential debrief of all assessment findings.
Identify the candidate's key strengths and areas in need of development.
Highlight limiting tendencies and origins of the derailment problem.
Clarify inner motivators for change and inner resistances to it. Harness
the former and neutralize the latter. Explicitly specify WIIFM (What's in
it for me?) and WIIFOrg.
Synthesize findings into a
Blueprint for Action
Detail the specific behavioral changes required - precisely what does
the candidate need to continue, start, and stop doing? Resources:
computerized assessment reports and 90-plus activities for
development-in-place (i.e., activities that do not require a job change).
Identify all the benefits that will accrue to one self and to the
organization once the change objectives are achieved.
Similarly, identify all potential impediments that could hinder the
turnaround effort - inner, interpersonal, and organizational.
Specify the action steps required to achieve the prescribed changes.
Enlist the involvement of others. Turnarounds require support from
others, playing an array of roles: coach, mentor, colleague, friend, role
model, protιgι, advocate. Change requires change partners.
Establish time frames and metrics, against which progress is measured.
III. Act
Acknowledge and reciprocate with those who gave feedback to the
candidate. Enlist one or some as change partners.
Debrief candidate's manager and involve them in the Blueprint for
Action.
Begin action experiments during real-time, day-to-day work life, then
debrief and refine with coach.
Adopt high-impact behavioral change techniques.
Measure progress against plan. Design simple and practical feedback
loops into work routine.
IV. Reflect/Evaluate and Reassess/Refine
This is the final phase of the turnaround process and works best when it
is hard-wired into the Action Phase of the cycle. By designing special
monitoring and evaluation tools, the candidate can regularly assess
progress and then recalibrate the Blueprint for Action.
Final Thoughts
If people are truly the primary resource of a company, as most
organizations assert, then they must be managed and developed like other
assets. It's really not unlike the management of any asset portfolio. That
is, every person is like an individual portfolio with a strong potential
for either managed growth or sub-par performance. The portfolio, however,
is a least partially opaque, as regards its assets and liabilities. We
have the expertise, though, to "value" the human portfolio. If one is to
optimize the asset-liability mix, the portfolio must first be valued, that
is, assessed for its strengths and weaknesses. Then after this initial
appraisal, we are in an excellent position to optimize the potential of
that individual's set of assets. The optimization process involves
maximizing the person's strengths, minimizing their weaknesses, and adding
new "assets" to their portfolio (i.e., skills, behaviors, and attitudes),
in order to maximize performance and protect against downside risk.
Whether we're talking about the development of key contributors, the
turnaround of potential derailers, careerpath development, or even
teambuilding, there is one strategy that is more effective than any other.
People can change, but the most substantive and permanent change is
realized when people develop from the inside out. This is the surest way
to prepare and motivate someone to accept the new change opportunities
made available to them.
Consequently, whenever we're working to enhance an "individual human
resource portfolio", the surest strategy is to begin at the beginning and
focus on the inside (that is, self-awareness and self-understanding)
before the outside (that is, skillbuilding and on-the-job development).
This change strategy has proven to be a more certain way of assisting
people through the process of behavior change, self-development, and
performance enhancement.
