Executive Coaching Practices in Action

Most of the coaching research found today is based on executive coaching. An executive is a leader at the top of the organization, including CEOs, vice presidents, and executive directors. Executive coaching relationships are usually formed:"between a client who has managerial authority and responsibility in an organization and a consultant [coach] who uses a wide variety of behavioral techniques and methods to assist the client to achieve a mutually identified set of goals to improve his or her professional performance and personal satisfaction and consequently to improve the effectiveness of the client’s organization within a formally defined coaching agreement."[i] This article summarizes five studies on executive coaching. Many include perspectives from both the coach and the client.

Training Intervention

Gerald Olivero, K. Denise Bane, and Richard Kopelman conducted a contracted training intervention on executive coaching as a transfer of training tool in a public sector municipal agency. Thirty-one participants volunteered for classroom training and one-to-one executive coaching. In phase 1 classroom training, the trainees completed a 3 day workshop on roles managers and supervisors need to increase productivity, quality, and effectiveness within the agency. A knowledge inventory was completed before and after the workshop, as well as an instructor satisfaction questionnaire. In phase 2 executive coaching, 8 managers were taught how to be one-on-one executive coaches. These 8 then coached the remaining 23 participants. Coachees were required to choose a work project that would enhance productivity, quality, and effectiveness. Each project shared a written format, time deadlines, and customers. All influenced the coachees’ subordinates in some way. Coachees worked individually with their coaches, covering goal setting, problem solving, practice, feedback, supervisory involvement, evaluation, and public presentation. The sessions lasted for a period of 2 months and consisted of weekly, 1 hour meetings.

Phase 1 training resulted in a 22.4% increase in productivity. Phase 2 coaching resulted in favorable reactions from all participants and an average increase in productivity of 88%. This demonstrates the dramatic effect of coaching as a transfer of training tool. “The training provided a period of abstract learning of principles, while the coaching facilitated concrete involvement in a project specific to each participant’s work unit.”[ii]

Executives Coached in a Private Practice

Karol Wasylyshyn, president of Leadership Development Forum, a management consulting firm specializing in applications of psychology and business, presents outcome research based solely on executives she coached between 1985 and 2001. A survey was sent out to 106 clients with an 82% response rate. The great majority of participants are white males in the 40 to 50 year age group with at least director level responsibility. Multiple responses were allowed for most of the questions presented.

Reactions to working with a coach were significantly positive, with 1/3 of the population remaining guarded on what to expect. The top 3 credentials organizations looked for in hiring external coaches were: graduate training in psychology, experience and an understanding of business, and an established reputation as a coach. The top personal characteristics of an executive coach included: the ability to form a strong relationship with the client, professionalism, and the use of sound coaching methodology. All respondents favored external coaching but were concerned about the person’s lack of company and industry knowledge. A majority of the respondents also indicated a preference towards internal coaching. The major concerns were confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and skill levels. Most executive coaching engagements focused on personal behavior change, followed by enhancing leadership effectiveness, and building stronger relationships. The highest rated coaching tools were face to face coaching sessions, 360 degree feedback, and the relationship with the coach. Executives and organizations measured success by sustained behavior change, increased self-awareness and understanding, and more effective leadership. The author concluded that coaching can benefit many people but the client must be motivated to change and engage in the process.[iii]

Practices, Attributes, & Skills

Deborah M. Luebbe conducted a study to investigate executive coaching practices, attributes, and skills. She looked at 3 groups: the coach, the coachee, and the human resource department to determine the most effective coaching outcomes. What leads to positive behavior change in coachees? What can be done for the best performance outcomes?

In the qualitative research phase, 13 participants from all groups were interviewed one-on-one in relation to their executive coaching experiences: 5 were female and 8 male, ranging in age from 34 to 59 years. These individuals were chosen based on their knowledge, experience, and candidness. The interviews focused on their perceptions of coaching attributes, behaviors, skills, processes, methodologies, outcomes, and measures as they relate to an effective coaching intervention.

The quantitative research phase was survey oriented and based on information obtained from the qualitative phase. Of the 61 participants, coaches came from internationally recognized firms, coachees came from a variety of industries, and human resource professionals practiced in healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services. The survey consisted of 25 items in a rating and ranking format. Questions covered executive coaching attributes, skills, behaviors, qualifications, and processes.

All rater groups indicated trusting relationships as the highest attribute in a coaching engagement. Other key themes that emerged include a coach’s ability to:

• Communicate valuable insight from assessments


• Be accountable to the hiring organization


• Provide candid feedback


• Foster self-awareness and independence


• Build partnerships with internal HR professionals


• Establish an agreed upon set of practices and competencies

Interventions are most successful when coaches are appropriately matched with coachees, and the organization communicates their intent and purpose to the coach. The study recommends adopting a person-centered approach. This means coaches should take the time to know and understand their clients before asking them to change. The age of the client, their level in the organization, the culture of the organization, and the industry in which one works, all influence learning preferences. By building relationships to discover these differences, coaches can ensure a more effective intervention.[iv]

Job-Related Attitudes

Myra E. Dingman presented research on the impact of executive coaching experiences in relation to self-efficacy, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work/family conflict. She asked, “How does the extent and quality of participation in an executive coaching experience affect levels of self-efficacy and job-related attitudes?” The study was based on the valid responses of 92 executives being coached by Transformational Leadership Coaching (TLC) graduates. Most participants were white males, with a median age of 42. The majority were married with children and held post-bachelor degrees. On average, respondents had worked 7 1/2 years with their organization and supervised about 16 employees in a field with religious affiliation.

A web-based survey, consisting of 88 questions, asked each coachee for information on their demographics, self, work/family balance, organization, job, the coaching process, and the quality of the coaching relationship. The study concluded that:

• Quality coaching relationships have a positive relation to self-efficacy but a negative relation to job satisfaction, meaning that an effective coach results in the coachee’s self image and self-efficacy increasing but a coachee’s job satisfaction actually decreasing.


• Successfully completing the coaching process led to an employee’s increased job satisfaction. This is great news for organizational coaching. The more time spent in a successful coaching relationship moving through the different steps in the coaching process will lead to increased job satisfaction for the employee.


• Organizational commitment and work/family balance are not significantly related to executive coaching experiences, meaning that neither was affected after a successful coaching relationship

Dingman suggests that organizations continue to study the impact of coaching on executives.[v]

What Works

Brett L. Seamons conducted research to determine the most effective component parts of executive coaching from the viewpoint of the coach, the client, and the client’s boss. Eight triad cases were surveyed by telephone using open ended discussions. The coach, the client (executive), and the client’s boss discussed their views on why the coaching experience was successful. The participants represented multiple coaching firms and organizations while crossing international borders. All participants were in the researcher’s personal network of colleagues and coaches. The average ages are as follows: coaches, 45; clients, 42; and bosses, 48. Work experience for all groups averaged between 19 and 23 years. Most coaching engagements lasted just under a year.

From the interviews, 5 components of coaching with a positive impact emerged. These include; support of boss, adherence, insight through feedback, relationship, and reflective space. Broken down:

• Coaches reported client adherence as the most important part of executive coaching


• Clients said the support of their superior, reflective space, and coaching challenges were the most important factors


• Bosses thought their support, insight through feedback, client adherence, and client investment were the most important factors


• Over 87% of the participants felt coaching was a value for the money
  

Each player can maximize coaching success by understanding the importance of their role and relationships.[vi]


[i]R. R. Kilburg, Executive Coaching: Developing Managerial Wisdom in a World of Chaos (Washington, District of Columbia: American Psychological Association, 2000), 66-67.
[ii]Gerald Olivero, K Denise Bane, and Richard E Kopelman, “Executive Coaching as a Transfer of Training Tool: Effects on Productivity in a Public Agency,” Public Personnel Management 26, no. 4 winter 1997 [journal on-line]; available from http://proquest.umi.com; Internet; accessed 20 September 2007.
[iii]Karol Wasylyshyn M, “Executive Coaching: An Outcome Study,” Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research 55, no. 2 (spring 2003): 94-106.
[iv]Deborah Luebbe M, “The Three-Way Mirror of Executive Coaching,” (Doctor of Philosophy diss., Union Institute & University, October 2004).
[v]Myra E. Dingman, “The Effects of Executive Coaching on Job Related Attitudes,” (Doctor of Philosophy diss., Regent University, April 2004).
[vi]Brett L. Seamons, “The Most Effective Factors in Executive Coaching Engagements According to the Coach, the Client, and the Client's Boss,” (Doctor of Philosophy diss., Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, March 2004).

LEARN FROM ORGANIZATIONAL COACHING STUDIES

What do businesses like Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, Nike, and Coca-Cola have in common? They all have used coaching in learning initiatives.[i] Organizational coaching is an internal coaching program that provides a platform where employees achieve balance between their own needs and those of the business. Coaches are usually managers or hired externally through the HR department. Four studies on organizational coaching initiatives reveal how it is progressing and where work needs to be done.

At Home

In the fall of 2005, BlessingWhite, a global consulting firm, conducted a 16 question, multiple-choice, online survey on how managers and employees view coaching. The questionnaire was answered by 677 respondents from a wide variety of industries. They found that coaching is a priority in 78% of the organizations and 91% of the respondents enjoy coaching. Most managers attended some sort of coaching training but still feel they need additional instruction. Many face competing time challenges and are aware they should coach more but are having difficulty following through. They are missing coaching opportunities on a regular basis. Over half of the coaching managers coach according to need. Of the employees being coached, many say they have to request it and it is not enough. Because of this, coaching does not contribute much to employee performance or job satisfaction. Several organizations still do not have incentives or accountability for coaching and there is a lack of support from top management.

BlessingWhite concluded that coaching fails because of flawed organizational systems. They recommend support from the top and an effort to imbed coaching into the culture. Managers cannot effectively coach on a battlefield. They need the right tools and structures. Leaders have an obligation to communicate the organization’s priorities so individual coaching can be linked to the big picture. They must tell their managers how they define business success. Managers in turn need to focus their efforts on building relationships with employees.[ii]

Across the Ocean

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) presented a picture of how coaching is being applied in the United Kingdom. They conducted a training and development survey in 2004 showing that 4/5ths of the respondents use coaching within their organizations, mostly through HR. Coaching has risen in popularity because:

· Business environments are rapidly changing
· Employees demand different medias of training
· There is a need for lifelong learning
· Senior executives want improved decision making abilities
· Coaching is targeted and supports other learning activities
· Individuals are responsible for development and progress
· Poor performance hurts the bottom line

Most respondents agreed that coaching benefits both individuals and organizations. It is an effective way to promote learning and the transfer of knowledge, while positively impacting profits. Coaching is mostly used to improve individual performance and productivity, as well as to grow future leaders. Junior and middle managers received the most coaching, with senior managers closely following. Coaching is delivered by internal and external practitioners. Internally, line managers perform the majority of coaching efforts. External coaches are used minimally to keep costs down. In addition, coaching measures are usually assessed through feedback from participants and coaches, appraisal systems, and attitude surveys.

The study concluded that while coaching is embraced by many organizations, few HR professionals have enough expertise to handle coaching initiatives. Among the challenges are confusion about what coaching actually means and how to engage different stakeholders in coaching relationships. Many leaders have not been able to construct a framework linking coaching value to the organizations goals. Coaching has to be adapted to fit the culture and the strategies of the business.[iii]

Personal Change

Jean Hurd investigated the relationship between adult development and organizational development by exploring the effect of organizational coaching on individual lives. For participation in the study:

· Coaching had to be supported, sponsored, and funded by the coachees organization of employment
· The coaching process had to last at least 6 months with a minimum of 6, 1-hour sessions
· No more than 2 years should have lapsed since conclusion
· The coaches had to have a reputation in the organizational development community or within highly respected organizations

The question, “How has the coaching process affected your life?” was presented to 9 individuals: 7 women and 2 men between the ages of 39 and 56, who had been coached in their organization. The participants came from Fortune 50 corporations to small, not-for-profit service businesses. Additional areas were probed using open-ended questions and included work life, personal life, sense of self, view of the future, and coaching processes. Several themes emerged from the data:

· Coachees received concrete feedback to make specific changes
· Coachees are more comfortable processing feedback from others
· Coachees are more self-aware and self-accepting
· Coachees understand how their actions impact others
· Coachees have new ways to think about and approach situations
· Coachees are able to make positive differences in how their organization works
· Coachees experienced changes in their personal lives
· The coaching process was therapeutic

Coaching builds relationships that are key enablers for change. The value of having someone who listens deeply was evident. Good coaching cascades in all directions to create learning individuals. Hurd recommends that organizations instill coaching, performance management, and feedback skills at all levels.[iv]

Waste Reduction

In this study, Joseph Sergio looked at the effectiveness of behavioral coaching by managers of 24 machine operators from one of the largest manufacturers of mechanical fasteners in the United States. The organization was facing many challenges, including poor employee attitudes, an unpleasant physical environment, complex equipment and processes, and business decline. The purpose of coaching was to reduce waste by changing operator behavior in 6 areas. Coaching resulted in a projected savings of $155,844 per year in reduced scrap and supported the assertion that it could have a significant effect, beyond those attained by more conventional methods tried earlier. This is one of few studies that proves coaching has value at lower operational levels.[v]

The Bottom Line

Many companies are planting the seeds for coaching to be an integral part of strategy execution but more research is needed to develop best practices. From these four studies, it is evident that organizational coaching is most successful when it is part of the culture, HR has the expertise to handle coaching initiatives, and coaching is practiced at all levels in the hierarchy.



[i]Nancy M. Davis, “Global Business Leaders Call For 'Speed to Competence',” 2008 HR Trend Book, December 2007, 53.
[ii]BlessingWhite, Coaching Conundrum 2: The Heart of Coaching (Princeton, New Jersey, 2006), 1-26.
[iii]Jessica Jarvis, Coaching and Buying Coaching Services [book on-line] (London: CIPD, 2004, accessed 15 September 2007), 1-80; available from http://www.cipd.co.uk; Internet.
[iv]Jean L. Hurd, “Learning For Life: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Effect of Organizational Coaching on Individual Lives,” (Doctor of Philosophy diss., Union Institute & University Graduate College, October 2002).
[v]Joseph P. Sergio, “Behavioral Coaching as an Intervention to Reduce Production Costs through a Decrease in Output Defects,” (Doctoral diss., University of Notre Dame, 1986).

Use Coaching Research to get Clients

Do you want more clients in your coaching practice? Then present your target audience with evidence that coaching is a sound investment. Research can show clients how coaching was used in situations similar to their own and what results were obtained. The studies also help coaches determine which techniques and tools are most effective in specific settings.

Where Can I Find Coaching Research?

The best resources for coaching research are university library databases. In addition to finding information through coaching oriented publications, pay particular attention to journals in the fields of Psychology, Management, Human Resources, Organizational Development, and Training. Coaching research is also available on the internet. While some websites require a subscription, many offer free or trial access to coaching material. Here are a few coaching research sources accessible online:

• BlessingWhite workplace studies on employee engagement, coaching, leadership, and career. [i]
• Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. Publishes original research, reviews, interviews, techniques and case reports. [ii]
• Dissertation Abstracts International from ProQuest. The database contains bibliographic citations and author abstracts from virtually all accredited institutions in North America that award doctoral degrees.[iii]
• International Coach Federation (ICF) Research Portal. Website provides a variety of resources about coaching research.[iv]
• International Coaching Psychology Review (ICPR). Publication focuses on theory, practice and research in the field of coaching psychology.[v]
• International Journal of Evidence-Based Coaching and Mentoring. The journal features coaching-related research in some issues.[vi]
• Questia. An online library that carries a wide selection of books, journal articles, magazines, and newspaper articles. Searchable by keywords or phrases.[vii]
• The Coaching Psychologist (TCP). Publishes articles on research, theory, practice and case studies in the arena of coaching psychology.[viii]
• The Foundation of Coaching (TFC) Research Division. Promotes sharing and access to coaching research. The foundation also sponsors coaching related research that is needed to advance the field. Grant criteria are located on the website.[ix]
• The International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (IJCO). Journal focuses on coaching for organizational performance and development. Coaching relationships are aligned with both the organization and the individuals involved in the coaching process. [x]
• The International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching (EMCC). Promotes the understanding of how theory relates to practice.[xi]

What Type of Research is Appropriate to Share?

The answer will depend on your target audience, their background, and what they are familiar with. In general, there are two approaches to any research project - quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative studies are highly structured, technical and scientific. They answer questions about relationships among measured variables. The purpose of quantitative research is to explain and predict, confirm and validate, and test theory. A relatively large body of literature is usually available on the subject matter. Quantitative research focuses on the breadth of discovery, using a representative sample and standardized instruments for data collection. Studies can be completed in a relatively short period of time and don’t require a lot of personal interaction. Quantitative findings are communicated through numbers, statistics, aggregated data, and a formal voice. Common quantitative research designs include:

• Observation studies – focus on a particular aspect of behavior


• Survey research – draws long-term conclusions from a collection of data at a particular point in time.


• Experimental research – examines cause and effect relationships

Qualitative studies are communicated in a narrative or literary style that is similar to how articles may be written in popular publications. They answer questions about the complex nature of phenomena, with the possibility of multiple points of view. The purpose of qualitative research is to describe, explain, evaluate, explore, interpret, verify and/or build theory. Literature on the subject matter is limited. Qualitative research involves in-depth study for relatively long periods of time in a loosely structured environment. Studies require personal interaction within a small sample of the population and include observations and interviews. Qualitative findings are communicated through words, individual quotes, and personal voice. Common qualitative research designs include:

• Case studies – to understand a particular person, program, or event


• Ethnographies – to understand how behaviors reflect the culture of a group


• Phenomenological studies – to understand an experience from the participants’ viewpoint


• Content analysis – to identify specific characteristics of a body of material

When choosing research for your client, it is best to share studies that match their concerns, personality, and environment. Use research to show how coaching was successful in situations similar to what they may be experiencing. For example, business leaders wanting to improve their performance at work would relate to research on executive coaching. The same applies to clients with personal goals. There is plenty of research out there but if you cannot find information in a particular coaching area, conduct your own research. First, purchase a good book on research planning and design to help structure your study and adhere to ethical guidelines.[xii] Then locate specialty coaches on the internet and ask them for case studies of their own experiences, interviews, or to fill out a survey. Analyze and interpret the data to draw conclusions. Finally, share your findings with the participants and your own target market. Don’t forget to review books written on coaching topics. Many contain case studies that may be useful in your own practice.

A Final Word about Research

The quality of research you find may vary considerably, so look at each study with a critical eye. Consider these questions when evaluating research:

• Who sponsored the study? Do they have a vested interest in the outcome?


• Was the research reviewed by experts before being published?


• How was data collected and analyzed?


• How many participants were in the sample population?


• How was the sample population drawn?


• Does the outcome coincide with other literary knowledge?


• Can the findings be generalized to other contexts?


• Do the conclusions correspond with the data collected?


• Is there hidden information between the lines? If 25% of coachees found their coaching sessions helpful, does that mean that 75% of coachees felt it was a waste of time? Numbers can be skewed to support a particular viewpoint.

Think of coaching research for your market as a ConsumerReports Buying Guide. When people make large purchases, they want to be sure the items they are buying have a strong history and are reliable. Research provides a historical background and evidence of reliable methods. By reading and sharing coaching studies, coaches create a win-win situation. They gain expertise, best practices, and proof that coaching will work for their target market, while their clients get confirmation that coaching is a viable option for goal achievement and confidence to invest in a coaching program. It’s time to take action. Find research, share it, and grow your practice.

Notes:
[i] Blessingwhite.com/research.asp.
[ii] tandf.co.uk/journals/rcoa
[iii] Proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/dai.shtml
[iv] coachfederation.org/research-education/icf-research-portal/research-articles/
[v] bps.org.uk/coachingpsy/publications/international-coaching-psychology-review/international-coaching-psychology-review_home.cfm
[vi] brookes.ac.uk/schools/education/ijebcm/home.html%21
[vii] questia.com
[viii] bps.org.uk/coachingpsy/publications/the-coaching-psychologist/the-coaching-psychologist_home.cfm
[ix] thefoundationofcoaching.org
[x] ijco.info/
[xi]emccouncil.org/eu/public/international_journal_of_mentoring_and_coaching/volume_vii_issue_1_extract/index.html
[xii] For more information on the research process, review the book Practical Research: Planning and Design, by Paul D. Leedy and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod.

Ten Strategies to Profit

Sales are the backbone of organizations. Without customers, there is usually no business. Sales personnel must be managed and held accountable for results. This means they must make an effort to call on their accounts regularly for add on business and to seek out new business. Not many commissioned sales personnel are allowed to wait around for calls to come in. It would be much easier and less costly to hire an internal employee to take orders, market, and call on the companys' existing customer base for add-ons and relationship building. For a base plus small commission, one would have a person consistently producing in the office. Use these ten strategies to get your sales staff moving towards profit.

1. Repeat/recurring business strategy: Are there ways to build a consistent revenue flow? Consider service contracts, memberships, or monthly pledges.
2. Referral strategy: What system do you have in place to consistently get referrals? For example, sending out thank you letters after a sale with a few business cards enclosed or offering a discount or free item if someone they refer makes a purchase.
3. Sales strategy: What do you require your sales people to do weekly? Meet goals? Cold call? Call their client list? Market to potential clients? Attend networking events? Ask for referrals from previous customers?
4. Marketing strategy: Think of 3 ways to market consistently. For example, attend a networking event once a week, direct mail potential customers monthly or call existing accounts for add-ons weekly.
5. Message strategy: How do you want to be perceived by your customers? Low price leader? Best customer service? Free delivery?
6. Viral strategy: How do you spread your business message? Word of mouth? Article writing? Speaking engagements?
7. Online strategy: What are your online goals? Are you making money or wasting money? Is the company website kept up to date?
8. Joint Venture strategy: Who can you partner with that has complementary products to what you sell? Can you provide referrals for someone else’s products and get paid for it? Could you pay another company for referring buying customers to you?
9. Time strategy: Who is going to do what? When? How often? Where?
10. Resources strategy: What do you need to get the job done? Who gets what?

Whatever you do, do it consistently and keep this in mind…..Would you want to do business with yourself? What makes the experience pleasant? What could improve? Many businesses are hurting economically. What can you do to take care of the customers you have so they continue to do business with you? Cutting corners is usually not a good answer. I will give you a personal example. I took my son to lunch at a well established restaurant in town. My son ordered a coke to drink. When I got the bill I found I had been charged 25cents for the straw the waitress put in his coke. When I complained to management I was told it was their new policy. I had just bought 3000 straws from Sams Club for about $10. The restaurants policy saved them very little money and irritated all their customers. I will never go back and I will tell everyone I know. Do you want that kind of publicity for your organization?

GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Many profit based organizations focus on their sales numbers when they should be more concerned with their gross margins on sales. The gross margin on sales is the difference between sales revenue and cost of goods sold (the price paid for inventory). The term gross indicates that the expenses necessary to operate the business must still be deducted to arrive at your bottom line. If the gross margin of sales is less than the operating expenses, the difference is a net loss for the period.

Let’s look at a simplified example: The XYZ Company purchases widgets for resell at $5.00 each. The sales staff sells these widgets to their clients for $8.00 a piece. This month, sales were $80,000 (10,000 widgets sold x $8.00 each widget). The cost of the widgets to XYZ Company is $50,000 (10,000 widgets purchased x $5.00 for each widget). XYZ Company’s gross margin on sales is $30,000 ($80,000 sales less $50,000 cost of sales). This means that their expenses cannot exceed $30,000 for the month if they want to stay profitable.

To stay profitable:

• Calculate your expenses for each month so you know how much gross margin on sales you need to cover them.
• Focus on how much you need to make on each sale and how many sales you need to stay in business.
• Selling fewer products for more money will give you more free time and less hassle.
• Make sure you only sell to clients who can afford to pay you.
  

Coaching: Why Are Soft Skills Important?

In many positions and occupations, job performance is soft skill dependent. Companies use assessment tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Mayer, Salovey, Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, so they can get an idea of what soft skills employees possess. These skills are often intangible and, therefore, not easily taught. They tend to be more a function of personality characteristics. Some examples of soft skills include:

Responsibility
Self-esteem
Sociability
Self-management
Integrity/honesty

Examples of interpersonal soft skills include:

Participates as a member of the team
Teaches others
Serves customers
Exercises leadership
Negotiates
Works with cultural diversity

Hard and soft knowledge are both important in the working world but employees who lack the ability to manage their lives, take responsibility for their own success, and follow through on commitments need to learn soft skills along with the hard skills required for a job so they understand how all aspects of their lives connect. Soft skills provide a way to get the highest return on investment when considering human capital. They can build great people. Few individuals are fired because they lack technical knowledge. Most are fired because of a deficit in soft skill knowledge. Ultimately, what we know is not nearly as important as what we do with what we know, and how well we do it.

Some organizations will attempt to train soft skills but training is a use it or lose it proposition. While a participant may be motivated and excited after returning from a program, preexisting thought patterns can work against implementation. Many trainers will admit that follow up is necessary for retention. The transfer of training includes both generalizations of training on-the-job and maintenance of learned material. For this to occur, abilities must be learned and retained through practical experience and repetition. The work environment, including cultural climate, management and peer support, and performance opportunity, is vital to this achievement. Coaching is a tool that can help arrive at transfer of knowledge by recalling the lessons learned, reinforcing their importance, and motivating the client to move forward, despite obstacles or roadblocks. It is suggested that peer coaching, group coaching, or manager to employee coaching take place as follow-up. These techniques will make soft skill retention possible.

Teams, Socio-Technical Systems, & Organizational Values

High performance and self-organizing teams have become an important part of organizational design to maintain a competitive edge. One of the most progressive team designs was developed in the 1950’s by social scientists Trist and Emery. The theory of socio-technical systems (STS) is a process-based, team oriented approach to work that evolved as a way to extend democratic and humane values into the workplace. The organization is viewed as an open system structured to integrate two independent but linked systems; the technical subsystem and the social subsystem. The technical subsystem, following the rules of physics, chemistry, and engineering, includes equipment and transformation processes which are technologically and economically driven so the most desirable method is the most productive at the least cost. The social subsystem, following the rules of psychology, sociology, and politics, incorporates interpersonal relationships that develop among people and build a mutual trust. The system recognizes that commitment to work is conditional on the work experience and assumes technology can be adapted to fit people. The best match of solutions is explored through joint optimization and discovery (see All Teams Are Not Created Equal by Lyman D. Ketchum and Eric Trist, 1992).

STS requires those who work to get a great deal more authority, control, skills, and information than what was customary with scientific management. Socio-technical designers seek to broaden each individual’s knowledge of social and economic consequences, and encourage each worker to develop a range of skills to get results. The work group becomes the focus of change. Organizations using STS should structure the task, authority, and reporting relationships around the work group by delegating decisions regarding job assignments, training, inspection, rewards, and punishment to the group. The aim is to optimize both technical and social subsystems for the benefit of the larger system. Management is responsible for coordinating the groups according to the demands of the work and task environment. Their role is to monitor the environmental factors that effect internal operations and coordinate the two subsystems.

One STS design goal is to produce a system that is capable of adapting to change and making the best use of an individual’s creative abilities. Turning to socio-technical values, objectives, and principles can simplify overly complex production systems and may provide answers for current problems, such as the challenge of reinforcing corporate values. Values are something of worth and importance where learning and experience are the two greatest forces shaping them. Organizational values involve individuals working together to achieve a common goal and help us create our standards of conduct that drive business decisions. As Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer put it, “The only thing that works is management by values. Find people who are competent and really bright, but more importantly, find people who care exactly about the same things you care about.”

Organizations need to establish a shared set of values and beliefs that align with the social and technical aspects of project management to achieve the organizations business objectives. These values provide the linkages between the organization’s members, structure, systems, and processes used in the adoption of management project methods. There are several principles leaders can follow to design a socio-technical system based on organizational values:

1. Express the needs and hopes of workers in design criteria and values to insure greater worker investment in organizational purposes. Participants share expectations while working to achieve agreement on the goals and objectives of a design team. The outcome is a set of shared values and assumptions that reflect the process.
2. Express values in the language of the organization and refer to the experiences of its members.
3. Clarify Values. Value clarification is a process of making explicit the premises that inform design choices.
4. Guide and test design decisions against explicit values.
5. Fit the workgroup to the technology. Technology should not determine work organization or design.

A supportive climate must exist between employees and leaders to strengthen organizational values. Management has a social responsibility to employees to ensure technology-based changes are introduced properly. Here are a few recommendations:

1. Let everyone know about the new technology changes through “selling and telling”.
2. Introduce the system to management first (to gain support), then to employees.
3. Make sure the technology works as promised.
4. Get rid of the old system once the new system is working.
5. Provide hands-on training.

How is your Organization Structured for Today’s Economy?

Structure facilitates the creation and implementation of strategy and the overall coordination of the enterprise. Organizational structure determines the placement of power and authority. It embraces two relationships: who is responsible for what, and who reports to whom. Organizations can become more “structure influenced” when they hit market maturity, there is a decline in competition, their industry is stabile, tasks are routine, or they operate in a politically charged environment. Movement away from a strong structural influence may be caused by industry upheavals, deregulation, economic decline, and legislation.

Businesses with structure-driven configurations buffer themselves from the need to change. In many ways they resemble a closed system and will use politics to capture key environmental resources. Organizations that can ignore the environment either reside in stable markets or have market power and resources to resist pressures to change. Uncertainty is reduced by pursuing routinization, standardization, and formalization. Performance in structure driven organizations is usually measured against internal standards like cost. Ironically, structure can also serve as a major factor in extreme open and flexible structures where rich organizations are well-adapted to their environment or operate in an unchanging setting.

Organizations with high structural influence may confine themselves to existing and predictable market niches. The choice of strategy is limited to adherence with specified power distributions, inviolate rules, and procedures with specific modes of interaction. Innovation and differentiation are rare, as norms of efficiency would be pursued. Managers within a structural influence are comfortable with existing functions and will have very little personal discretion. This uniformity reinforces the status quo.

There are five common ways to structure an organization: function, geography, product, customer, front-back hybrid.

Function
The functional structure is organized around major activity groups. It provides advantages in knowledge sharing, specialization, leverage with vendors, economics of scale, and standardization. This structure is most effective for managing a single product or service line and can create barriers between different functional areas. Each area tends to develop a unique perspective that can make collaboration difficult. Functional organizations operate most effectively in small companies, businesses with little diversity in product, or markets that don’t compete based on speed. Common criteria: single line of business, small, core capability requires depth of expertise in one or more functional areas, product diversity or fast product development cycles not critical, common standards important.

Geographic
A geographic structure is organized around physical locations. It provides the advantage of local focus because power is given to the regional manager but slows down response time when a global solution is needed. Common criteria: high cost to transport, service delivery on-site, proximity to customer for delivery or support, local perception.

Product
The product structure is organized around product divisions. It can evolve from a functional structure when a company diversifies and each line is large enough to support its own production. This structure has the advantage of a product development cycle, product excellence, and a broad operating freedom. Its challenges lie in divergence issues, duplication, lost economies of scale, and multiple customer points of contact. Common criteria: product features or being first to market is important, multiple products are produced for separate market segments, short product development time is an advantage; products have short life cycles, the organization is large enough to achieve the minimum efficient scale required to duplicate functions.

Customer
The customer structure is organized around major market segments. It provides customization, relationships, and total solutions. Difficulties arise in divergence, duplication, and scale. Common criteria: important market segments where buyers have strength, customer knowledge provides an advantage, rapid customer service and product cycle times are required, the organization is large enough to achieve the minimum efficient scale required to duplicate functions.

Front-Back Hybrid
The front-back hybrid structure contains elements from the product and customer structures. It allows for product excellence at the back end while increasing customer satisfaction at the front end. This structure is best for large organizations that have multiple product lines and segments, serve global customers, need to maximize both customer and product excellence, and have managers capable of managing complexity. The front-back hybrid has several advantages, such as a single point of interface for customers, cross-selling, value-added systems and solutions, product focus, and multiple distribution channels. The complexity of the design can overwhelm an organization.

What Else is Important?
The size of an organization is another aspect for structural decision-making. Small organizations tend to have flat, simple, structures. They cannot afford to duplicate functions, so a functional structure will be most efficient. As an organization grows, it will have the resources to specialize its products and services by market or industry. This usually happens when an organization’s volume increases to a point where they hit the break-even point. The size of an organization does not change the design process, only the number of iterations in the process. For example, a one hundred person firm may only have one level of design. The resulting units will not be large enough to be structured more than one level further.

Every organization experiences the pulls that underlie their structure: pulls to centralize by top management, pulls to formalize by the technostructure, pulls to professionalize by the operators, pulls to collaborate by the support staff, and pulls to divide by the middle line managers. Since organizations tend to configure around the pull that dominates, structures can serve as a tool for diagnosing the problems of organizational design.

How is your organization designed and structured? Is the structure the dominate influence on how things get done? Maybe leadership or environment is more important. Does your organization have the right structure to grow and expand? What could change?

Is Your Organization Influenced by the Environment?

Environment is usually a dominant influence for small firms in highly competitive environments with few resources, and midsized firms in uncertain situations. In this scenario, there is little potential for product differentiation and few barriers to entry. Small profit margins lead to simple, centralized, cost efficient strategies that can respond quickly to changing markets. In an unstable economy, more organizations will move towards environmental influence when there is an increase in external uncertainty. They will only move away from environmental influence when their company accumulates sufficient market power through size, differentiation, vertical integration, and diversification.

According to the book, Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organizations, there are 4 types of structures found under specific environmental conditions. Simple, stable environments result in organizations that rely on standardization of processes and centralization for coordination. Complex, stable environments lead to decentralized structures that coordinate through the standardization of skills. Dynamic, simple environments rely on flexible, organic structures while remaining centralized. Dynamic, complex environments have decentralized organizations so managers or specialists can understand the issues. The structure provides flexibility so the firm can respond to unpredictable changes. Extreme hostility in the environment will drive organizational types to temporarily centralize their structures.

There are seven external categories that can influence an organization and affect their bottom line:

• Economic - inflation, interest rates, employment, incomes
• Social - births, housing, population trends
• Cultural - consumer values, safety, needs, beliefs
• Resources - materials, labor, credit, investors
• Government - laws, regulations, contracts, trade
• Political - policies, tariffs, taxes, elections
• Industry - competitors, prices, technology, markets

Supporters of environmental influence suggest that organizations must adapt to their surroundings because constraints determine which forms of strategy and structure are practical. The environment, as a cause, imposes uniformity by extinguishing organizations that ignore it. It is assumed that gross departures from industry standards will lead to failure. This position is held by many traditional contingency theorists and industrial economists.

Environmental scanning can provide the information needed to strategically plan for change. In a study of 20 nondiversified companies, profitability was greater when executives had an accurate perception of industry volatility. A study of 65 organizations concluded that active participation by top leaders in monitoring the external environment was associated with a more accurate perception of the market.

When the environment is a major influence, organizations should develop intelligent systems that scan for threats and opportunities. Here are some questions likely to be important to your organization in these hard economic times:

• What do clients and customers need and want?
• What is the reaction of clients and customers to the organization’s current products and services?
• Who are the primary competitors?
• What strategies are they pursuing?
• How do competitors’ products and services compare to ourorganizations products and services?
• What events affect the acquisition of materials, energy, information, and other inputs used by our organization to conduct its operations?
• How will our organization be affected by new legislation and by government agencies that regulate its activities?
• How will new technologies affect our organization’s products, services, and operations?
• How will our organization be affected by changes in the economy?
• How will our organization be affected by changing population demographics?
• How will our organization be affected by international events?

There are several guidelines leaders can use to monitor the external environment. First, identify the relevant information that needs to be gathered. Look for timely information about specific sectors of the environment on which the organization is most dependent and for competitor performance. Second, use multiple sources of relevant information. For example, informal network contacts, journals, newsletters, trade and professional publications, and government reports can help avoid biases. Interpretations are likely to be more accurate if many people are involved in the process. Third, learn what customers want and need. Market surveys are a common source of information. Fourth, learn about the products and services of competitors. This information provides a basis for evaluating your own organization. Fifth, link environmental information to strategic plans. Use the information to measure the relevance of current goals.

What Type of Leader Are You? Leadership Influence in the Organization

The term leader is defined in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary as “a person who leads.” The definition suggests that a leader must help the organization choose a path by developing a plan, then motivate people to follow that plan. James Gardner, author of On Leadership, magnifies this premise, “The two tasks at the heart of the popular notion of leadership are goal setting and motivating” In reality, leaders are more multidimensional, with each having a unique pattern of attributes. An observation made by Bennis years ago rings true today:

Always, it seems, the concept of leadership eludes us or turns up in another form to taunt us again with its slipperiness and complexity. So we have invented an endless proliferation of terms to deal with it… and still the concept is not sufficiently defined.

Underlying much of the research on executives is an interest in discovering how much and in what ways they influence the organization. When leadership is a major influence, it emphasizes the impact of a CEO’s behavior, goals, talents, drives, emotions, and fantasies on the organization. McClelland argues that leaders with a high need for achievement attempt to control their organizations while pursuing ambitious strategies. Miller and Droge show that a CEO’s need for achievement in a small firm was an important predictor of organizational structure. High achievers tend to like centralized power and will set up control systems and formal procedures to obtain feedback on performance. A CEO’s flexibility gives rise to niche strategies, informal and simple structures, intuitive decision-making, and risk-taking. In addition, a CEO’s perceived ability to persuade strongly influences organizational innovation, and pro-activeness.

A strong leadership influence is usually more prevalent in the birth phase of a business cycle. It also includes firms that are often small and run by the owners who make the key decisions. Movement towards a major leadership influence might occur when past leader successes elevate power, charismatic leaders hire like-minded managers, CEO’s are also owners, or hiring policies discourage dissent. Movement away can be influenced by a leader’s departure, performance problems that erode a leader’s credibility, a public offering, or takeover.

There are several avenues in determining the effects of leader influence. One way is to assess competing leadership values and trade-offs. For example, task requirements, such as efficiency, productivity, and investment, sometimes conflict with the desires or concerns of employees. Structured work may increase efficiencies, but this less flexible environment will make it difficult to implement changes in strategy. Efficiency is easier to increase when the environment is stable and there is less need to innovate products and services. The more volatile the environment, the more important it is to be adaptive. Leaders who deal with internal and external stakeholders will also need to weigh incompatible demands, such as, should profits increase at the expense of social responsibility? A leader is responsible to find some balance.

Leadership models can also help us to understand a leader’s organizational influence. Bolman and Deal, in Four Framework Approach, suggest that leaders display behaviors in one of four frameworks: Structural, Human Resource, Political, or Symbolic. Each requires a specific organizational setting to be successful. In the structural framework, the leader is detail oriented and focuses on configurations of structure, strategy, environment, implementation, experimentation, and adaptation through a thorough analysis. This framework is very effective during reorganization or change efforts. The human resource framework describes a leader who believes in the people and provides support and empowerment. This leader is visible, accessible, and shares information to move decision-making downward. In some organizations, the leader would be seen as a pushover. Leaders of a political framework clarify what they want and assess the distribution of power and interests. They use persuasion, negotiation, and coercion, if necessary, to achieve their goals. In the wrong environment, these leaders appear manipulative. In the symbolic framework, leaders view organizations like actors view a stage. Experience is framed through interpretation and used to communicate a vision. This type of leader can be very inspiring or appear all “smoke and mirrors”. Leaders should be conscious of all four approaches, even when one approach is preferred.

Dr. Bruce Winston of Regent University provides an excellent audio presentation on eight types of leaders:

• Despotic Ruler
• Benevolent Dictator
• Paternalistic Clan Chief
• Democratic Official
• Absentee Leader
• Transactional Leader
• Transformational Leader
• Servant Leader

Visit http://media.regent.edu/schlead/leadership/leadership_leader_follower.wma to listen to the presentation.

In summary, leaders establish goals, assumptions, policies, strategies, and accepted norms of behavior. They usually recruit and promote managers who conform to their own values and expectations. While a leader’s influence is evident in all organizations, it will apply more to small, highly centralized firms, or young, owner run businesses, and can increase with tenure. In your organization:

• What type of leader is in control?
• What type of leader do you see yourself as?
• Did you see a relationship between how the various leaders interacted with their followers and what structure might be best suited for the organization?
• What can you do to create a more leadership friendly environment?

The Configuration Approach: Organizational Strategies

In his doctoral thesis at Carnegie Mellon University, Pradip Khandwalla uncovered that organizations function effectively by putting different characteristics together in complementary ways. His arrival at McGill University’s Faculty of Management in the early 1970’s, stirred interest in the configuration approach. This resulted in Mintzberg’s two books on the subject, one about structure, and the other on power relationships.

In 1971, a major research project began at McGill that tracked strategies of various organizations over thirty to fifty or more years. Distinct stages were identified in the histories of the organizations. These stages sequenced themselves and four main patterns emerged: periodic bumps, oscillating shifts, life cycles, and regular progress (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel 306, 310).

Danny Miller, initially affiliated with McGill University, wrote a doctoral dissertation using published studies of companies to pattern ten archetypes of strategy formation; four failures and six successes. His work integrated different attributes of organizations and covered a combination of large samples and specific firms. Later, Miller and Friesen describe the concept of organizational change as quantum, as in viewing the changing of many elements concurrently, rather than piecemeal, which involves changing one element at a time. Miller indicates that success within organizations is often achieved by exploiting the strategies already in place. When the configuration gets out of sync, a strategic revolution has to take place where many things change at once. The company will try to leap to a new stability as quickly as possible (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel 312-314).

In another published study about configuration in strategy and structure, Chandler identified four stages in a firms’ life cycle after researching the evolution of the large American industrial enterprise.

• Initial acquisition of resources
• Establishment of functional structures
• More growth and diversification
• A second shift in structure

Large firms now usually concentrate on core competencies. Together with Chandler’s stages, this suggests oscillating cycles of control and release (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel 317-318).

Background

The configuration approach is characterized by terms such as holistic, universalistic, integrative, and systemic. This stance asserts that the parts cannot be understood in isolation but order emerges from the interaction of the whole (Meyer, Tsui, and Hinings 1178). It focuses on the mutual influence of four variables: leadership, environment, structure, and strategy. Think of these elements as the causes, and the organizational design as the effect. While each is likely to have a role in all configurations, most often one influence will dominate (Miller 686).

This school of thought suggests that for a period of time, the organization will adopt a structural form, matched within some type of context that causes particular behaviors to give way to a set of strategies (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel 305). Organizations will alternate between equilibrium and disequilibrium. Change, as episodic, occurs in rapid transformations from one stable state to another. Transitions between the four influences may happen during the course of a firm’s life cycle, but organizations will change easier within their major influence and original theme. For example, a bureaucratic firm may strive for more standardization. Destroying an old configuration to build a new one is a disruptive undertaking. Such a move requires significant incentives. The most common changes are due to serious performance declines, or replacement of top management (Miller 698).

The configuration approach shares many elements of chaos theory such as, disorder, instability, and nonlinear relationships. It embraces the concept that certain patterns are within systems of apparently random behavior. It accommodates equifinality because there is more than one way to succeed in each setting but cohesive configurations reduce the number of ways the elements combine. This allows for some commonality between organizations, especially between structure types and strategies (Meyer, Tsui, and Hinings 1178-1179).

Works Cited:

Meyer, Alan, Anne Tsui, and C.R. Hinings. “Configurational Approaches to
Organizational Analysis.” Academy of Management Journal 36.6 (1993): 1175-1195.

Miller, Danny. “The Genesis of Configuration.” Academy of Management Review 12.4 (1987): 686-701.

Mintzberg, Henry, Bruce Ahlstrand, and Joseph Lampel. Strategy Safari. New York: Free Press, 1998.

Social Isolation in the Virtual Community

When Frederick Taylor in the early twentieth century introduced scientific management, humans were seen more as physical components in organizational machines than emotional and spiritual individuals. Today, the corporation is viewed as a social community and becomes an arena not only for work but also for identification, self-realization, and friendship. As the new century progresses, “on-line communities” are taking the place of traditional labor environments and many Americans are transitioning to virtual work. By recent estimates, nearly 18 million U.S. workers spend at least a portion of their work week in virtual mode. Although virtual work has many benefits, there is ample data to support the premise that those who work at home full-time experience social isolation. Social isolation is the absence of work-based social support associated with organizational identification. For many, virtual environments inhibit the social interaction that builds community and identification within the workplace.

Although sociologists differ on what community means, there are two concepts universally agreed upon to constitute its existence. They refer to a commonality of location and a commonality of interest. Considering virtual employees work at least part of the time in separate locations, this definition indicates that building a virtual community brings unique challenges. Without daily interaction, a common workplace, and a sense of identity, virtual personnel can feel disconnected and isolated. These workers repeatedly report concerns about being “out of sight, and out of mind” from their organization.

As virtual employees are isolated from their colleagues, they lose opportunities to benefit from other people’s ideas and experiences. The synergy that teams experience as they interact within community is lost when community is not established in cyberspace. This can easily discourage employees from participating in virtual programs and hinder the progression of any telework program.

Consequently, virtual organizations can also lose social cohesion, which refers to situations in which individuals are “bound to one another by common social and cultural commitments”. This results in a loss of individual loyalty to common norms, values, and interdependence that arise from shared interests and individual identification within the group. An employee’s identification to the organization provides a psychological link referred to as “strength of members.” This indicates the degree to which employees are motivated to fulfill organizational needs and goals, their willingness to display organizational citizenship, and their tendency to remain in the organization.

The costs of social isolation are too great to be ignored. The entire virtual work program is weakened as personnel fear losing their identity and distinction. Some feel their contributions may end up in a company’s database to never be associated with its contributor. Other’s have asked themselves, “If my hard earned experience, knowledge, and wisdom can no longer be traced directly back to myself, what future will I have in a Knowledge Economy?” Ultimately, employees may decide to terminate their participation within a virtual environment.

Similar to the days of the Industrial Revolution, today’s managers must learn how to lead within the context of newly established communities. Isolation and potential loss of identity among colleagues inhibit many people from taking advantage of telecommuting and virtual teams. Social isolation requires managers to rethink their methods of leading within today’s on-line community.

So how do leaders ensure that social relationships and commitments are maintained, and that social isolation does not occur within the virtual environment? One way is to understand the personalities, gifts, and styles of virtual employees and their leaders. Another way is through organizational design of a socio-technical system. To accomplish this:

1. Set boundaries to define the overall limits of permissible action by a follower, but use these boundaries to give team members freedom to work, rather than directives from management.

2. Manage the boundary between the system and the environment.

3. Communicate with followers on a continuous basis by email, conference calls, and instant messaging. Instead of relying on unplanned contact in physical third places, members of communities must seek out companions in personal spaces created through the use of new communications technologies. Many tools are available for this, including Blackberry™ devices, free conference call websites and Skype.

4. Hold face-to-face meetings in order to build higher levels of trust and communication. People who fail to communicate cannot compose a common culture and are not, therefore, a community. If meaning is lost in transition from speaker to addressee, then community is lost. In addition, conducting meetings, at least annually, enables leaders to facilitate teambuilding activities with their constituents.

Using these methods within a socio-technical design context will mitigate or eliminate many problems related to feelings of isolation brought on by virtual environments. As communication and change are inevitable and move at an accelerated pace, leaders within virtual communities must work toward acquiring the competencies needed to maintain a sense of cohesiveness despite location.

The Changing HR Structure: Leadership, Foresight, & Strategy

In an annual survey from the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit entitled, CEO Briefing: Corporate Priorities for 2006 and Beyond, senior executives worldwide indicated they were unhappy about their company’s HR functions. Historically known as a support department with a lot of responsibility and little control over outcomes, HR has taken a direct hit. To survive in organizations driven by globalization, changing demographics, cost containment, advanced technology and legislation, HR must prove its importance by acting as a strategic partner and aligning with company wide objectives, or face outsourcing themselves.

The new HR professional performs transformational work that involves knowledge management, foresight, and strategic redirection and renewal. Knowledge programs evaluate and manage the process of accumulation, creation, and application of intellectual capital. Foresight is used to plan for the future. According to Edward Cornish, those who study the future concentrate on three areas. First, they believe that the world and all its systems and inhabitants are interconnected and dependent on each other. Second, they are focused on time as a critical force and believe that to change the course of events, one has to begin now. Third, ideas of the future are paramount for improving the lot of humankind. Knowledge management and foresight are both used in the strategic processes. Strategy-making involves capturing data from all sources, including insight, internal and external material, and then synthesizing the learning from that data into a direction for the business to pursue. It encompasses projecting knowledge into a future state of existence. These skills allow HR leaders to act as consultants in the advancement of state of the art systems and processes for use within the organization, and to help business unit line executives strategically address and forecast staffing needs.

There is a two-way relationship between human resource planning and companywide strategic planning. Human resource planning helps the organization create a feasible strategy that makes sure people are available with the appropriate skills to pursue the firms’ strategic objectives. It identifies gaps between staffing needs and current or projected demographics, determines the strategy for recruiting, retaining, or retraining critical talent, and monitors those strategies to ensure alignment. According to Raymond Noe, from his book, Employee Training & Development, “human resource planning includes the identification, analysis, forecasting, and planning of changes needed in the human resources area to help the company meet changing business conditions”. Planning allows a company to anticipate the movement of employees due to turnover, transfers, retirements, or promotions. Rapid technological advances can cause serious mismatches between the jobs available and the number of people with the necessary skills to fill those jobs. Strategic HR matches employee skills with other positions in the organization when necessary and provides training to prepare employees for increased responsibility or predicted job opportunities.

Since strategic staffing involves forecasting the supply and demand of appropriate human resources for the organization, planners must understand the external business environment and the trends that occur within it. In an article called, “Workforce Planning: The Strategy Behind Strategic Staffing,” Christina Morfeld suggests using a four-step model to staff strategically.

1. Supply Analysis: Identify the demographics and competencies of your current workforce by examining attrition statistics, including resignations, retirements, internal transfers, promotions, and involuntary terminations. A skill inventory that captures information on each employee’s knowledge, skills, abilities, education, experience, and compensation history can address changing needs.
2. Demand Analysis: Forecast the competencies that will be required by the company’s future workforce to be successful. Review internal and external influences to predict how the nature of the work will change. These include reviewing the business mission, strategies, goals, legislation, economic conditions, technological advances, and market competition. Scenario planning is an effective way to systematically evaluate these variables by answering the question, “What would happen if…?” They may also be developed through the use of back-casting.
3. Gap Analysis: Compare the supply and demand data collected during steps 1 and 2. The results determine skill surpluses, skill deficiencies, and help pinpoint who is at risk.
4. Solution analysis: Develop strategies for closing the gaps identified in step 3. Identify ways to build skills that are in short supply and reduce those that are overly abundant in relation to the organization’s projected needs. Focus on optimizing the current and future workforce.

Strategic human resource planning drives the other human resource management functions by providing a framework for policies and programs such as compensation and training. The process is used to determine how people will be hired and used in the firm as it considers:
· Tasks and responsibilities that are tied to business goals
· Competencies and skills necessary to produce outstanding performance
· Which combinations of resources are most productive
· Tools designed to make the better hiring choices

A strategic staffing plan that is carefully designed and executed transforms hiring practices to align with the organization’s human capital and strategic goals. These methods improve employee utilization and the company’s overall effectiveness and competitive positioning.

In concluding, we must realize that job markets today are about variety, choice, and change. HR professional’s that think like futurists and take a strategic approach to designing organizational structures can lead their company into a new era. This involves the continuous process of futures fluency; gathering data to monitor changes, accessing the implications of change, imagining alternative futures, envisioning ideals, and planning. The success of future American corporations relies on the development of systems and practices that attract, retain, and develop a skilled, educated, and talented workforce.

Decisions: How do you make them?

In my working career, I have noticed that many leaders do not always think their decisions through before implementation. The biggest mistake they make is not consulting with the employees to whom the decision will effect. Such action requires engaging the employees in conversation and the decision-making process. It means asking them questions about work flow, time constraints, problems, integration with other departments, and customer care, to name a few. It especially means listening to what others have to say. By including employees in decision-making, the leader will discover critical information that will enable them to make a more effective decision. They will probably even gain buy-in.

Some workplace decisions may require a certain level of confidentiality. In such circumstances, it may be beneficial for a leader to hire an external coach. Coaching can help leaders make more effective decisions by considering unrecognized variables and working through the consequences of different scenarios. If coaching is not an option, here is a tool to get you started in making better decisions.

When I was a child I used to love to draw nature pictures. Most of my pictures had the sun in them. I would draw a circle and then draw straight lines coming out from the edge of the circle all the way around the perimeter (OK, I still draw the sun like that). I want you to grab a piece of paper and draw about eight suns on it. Make the suns fairly large and spread them out. Now, think of a decision you recently made. What action did you decide to take? At the top of the paper write, “If I take this action, how will it effect………” In the middle of each sun, write one of these words or phrases: me, my employees, my department, other departments, the company, customers, vendors, and environment. If you have eight suns, each with one of the eight words of phrases written in it, you are now ready to record your bright ideas. Starting with the ME sun, record on the spokes or straight lines all the ways your plan of action affects you. Then move to the EMPLOYEE sun. Record on the spokes or lines all the ways your plan of action affects your employees. Repeat the process for each sun. Record both the good and bad. There are always two sides to every story. If you need help discovering both sides, engage others in the process to help you. Once you are done with the exercise, read over it and ask yourself some questions. Is your plan of action still as good as you thought it would be? What needs to change? What other actions might be more feasible or cause less damage? How can you make your decision even more effective?

I hope you have a better understanding about the importance of thinking your decisions through. Our actions usually touch others in some way that we may not be aware of. The question becomes: Is your action harmful or beneficial to others? Is your decision selfish or considerate of the greater good?

Coaching and the Law of Attraction: Seven Ways to Find Focus

There is a lot of buzz out there about the law of attraction. What I have deciphered from it all are two key points: Clear Focus and Action. Let me explain. When I hear people say, "I want more money" what does that really mean? How will it come to them? Will they win a lottery or get a big settlement from an accident they are about to be in? We need to be clear on how we will attract what we desire. In the same instance, we may desire to make more money by selling additional products and services from our business. We may be completely clear on our focus, but unless we take action and grab the opportunities that come along or make our own opportunities, nothing is going to happen.

Your brain is a wonderful organ. When you have clear focus, it will actually weed out irrelevant data around you, and you will begin to see or find opportunities that may normally be ignored. For example, when my husband and I decide to buy a car, we do a lot of research. We may go online, buy Consumer Guide's Auto Report, and visit every dealership in our area. We become completely focused on the car we want to purchase. So what happens? Our ideal car is suddenly everywhere; at the shopping center and gas stations, on the highways and back roads. The car ads for our vehicle jump out of the newspaper. We begin to see it on every car lot we pass. This does not stop until we purchase the car and/or decide to focus our attention on something else.

OK, so where does coaching come in? Well, coaching helps clients FOCUS and be accountable by taking ACTION. Suddenly your goal is right in your face and your coach will make sure you don't get off track. Every time you talk to your coach they will be asking you about your focus and what action you have taken to get closer to achieving it. I am going to give you 7 ways to start a coaching relationship and keep your focus. Decide if your focus is work related or personal, then choose the best method for you. Think out of the box and try to come up with a few more ways to get the coaching you want.

1. Self Coaching

Self coaching empowers individuals to be responsible for managing and developing themselves. It can build self-esteem, confidence, and competencies. Individuals identify, find, and apply solutions to their goals by using one of the coaching or problem solving models, such as GROW.

2. Peer Coaching

Peer coaching is used widely in universities and school settings. It is a process through which two or more colleagues work, learn, and develop together. Peer coaching is usually voluntary and less threatening than traditional coaching arrangements. Peers are flexible enough to provide support and feedback right on the job. For personal goals, try peer coaching with a friend.

3. Coaching with Managers

Managers that coach their followers do so on both an informal and formal basis, depending on the circumstances. Working with employees daily, a coaching manager can spot problem areas, talent, and developmental issues quickly and apply coaching skills for change. Managers also have extensive knowledge of what is needed in the area under their command and can integrate a big picture view into the coaching relationship. They are in a position to best know what motivates each of their employees to action.

4. Coaching with Senior Leaders

Senior leaders that coach have the ability to leverage their role in the organization and make coaching a cultural reality. They are the ultimate role models of how coaching is to be handled. Role modeling requires extensive commitment to self development through reflection, assessments, and feedback. It means using coaching with intention and appropriateness, having their own coach, and being authentic.

5. Team Coaching

In team coaching, a coach provides coaching to a group of people, usually for development purposes or to meet higher productivity demands. A coach can help a team: Define its purpose, understand its environment, tackle performance barriers, build learning plans, grow confidence, and develop ways to internalize coaching. Team members must learn to put aside personal agendas and develop actions that are good for the group and the organization they belong to.

6. Coaching with Internal Coaches

To stay competitive in a global economy, organizations like IBM take coaching seriously and have hired coaches for internal positions. They usually work the organization both horizontally and vertically, impacting a large number of the workforce. Internal coaches can also teach and reinforce coaching skills in management and are able to integrate coaching into other learning programs. They have access to organizational resources and are able to give timely feedback to those they coach.

7. Coaching with External Professionals

An external coach is someone hired from outside the company as an independent contractor. Many external coaching initiatives today are directed towards those in leadership roles. External or executive coaches are usually brought in to sharpen the leadership skills of high potential individuals. They can provide alternative perspectives, political neutrality, high objectivity, and confidentiality that may not be possible from internal coaching arrangements.

Whether your goal is personal or business related, hiring a coach will help you focus and get results. Let's be realistic. Life is distracting. Coaching is the best tool to keep you aligned towards the reality you want. Find a coach now. Your brain will reward you for your efforts.

Working Women: Finding Balance and Equality in Creative Organizational Design: Part 5 of 5

The Company

Many educated women want to have a career and a family, but the idea of giving up a profession to become a stay at home mom or elder caretaker can be daunting. Thanks to the communication age, women are reshaping their work environments by interweaving jobs with parenting and other responsibilities. Picture an executive office suite company designed just for females who need to make life/career transitions. The purpose would be to provide a professional atmosphere where women could be their own boss and adapt their work around outside obligations. Support services within the building would allow women more freedom to do what they choose.

Skilled females who need more flexibility than traditional organizations allow, could rent office suites and continue working as entrepreneurs. The idea is for tenants to use the services of other tenants, as well as seek their own clients. The Executive Suite Company for Women would promote its tenants to area businesses through quarterly publications and its website. Because the tenants are predominately women in similar situations, they can support each other in their efforts. In addition, the building would have childcare on the premises, and contract with surrounding businesses or women working from home to offer discounted and delivery services to its tenants. These include dry cleaning, home babysitting, sick care or healthcare, meal preparation, fitness, seminars, and personal assisting. All these services would be listed on the businesses intranet, accessible by the tenants, who could also email or instant message others in the building.

Visualize a tree. Its core is the roots and trunk, which provide support for the branches and leaves. In the same sense, this new company for women would have a core group responsible for its operation and support. Staff might include a building manager, in charge of rental space contracts and other daily operations; a marketing representative, hired to promote/sell office space and the services of the buildings tenants; a business manager, in charge of financial and administrative matters; and a building receptionist, to greet clients of tenants, receive mail, answer phones, and other clerical duties. While all tenants would have mailboxes, most services would be ala cart so women pay only for what they need. For example, the receptionist could also answer their phone calls for an additional fee. If the core staff needed additional help, it would first seek the services of its tenants. These primary employees would have to work as a team. With most services contracted out, including cleaning, maintenance, and web design, it would be necessary to coordinate all activities.

The suites would vary in size and room divisions. All would include electric, windows, phone lines, high speed internet access, individual heating and cooling controls, cleaning services, and most importantly, sound proof walls. Each tenant would be given a billing card, similar to a credit card, to charge miscellaneous building services. The building would have a lunch/snack area with tables inside and out, complete with vending machines and refrigerators. For those too busy to pack a lunch or eat out, different restaurants would be sponsored each day and tenants could place their order for delivery through the receptionist. This would also include ordering food for children in daycare or aftercare. Several conference rooms would be made available for tenant use, as well as an area with copiers, fax machines, debit machines, Federal Express, UPS, and US mail pick-up. Business identity programs would be made available to women who prefer to work from home and include the use of the business address as well as other building amenities.

Suppose this organizational design was a franchise. Women tenants from one city could use building services, including daycare, in another city while traveling. The internet would make information sharing easy.

Just like branches of a tree that sprout off in different directions, the building would have divisions of professionals working within its walls. Since one organizational goal is to provide tenants with easy access to specialized services, some entrepreneurial businesses would be treated as extensions of the core and actively solicited to rent office space. For instance, building management would contract out for a daycare facility, preferably from a franchise, to be run within the building. The daycare would be for the use of tenants renting space and of course the general public. While daycares are usually paid on a monthly or weekly basis, tenants would be eligible for special weekly, daily and hourly rates. They would only be obligated to give 24 hour notice to the center for childcare. Working mothers in the building could view their child in daycare via their computer. An after school and summer program would also be sought out for school age children. Both curriculums allow tenants to bring their children to work with them. Other businesses important to the overall success of this new organization include office support services, accountants, and marketing or professional advertisers.

The leaves of a tree are ever changing. Just like working women, leaves are affected by different seasons. This business concept is for those life transitions. Visualize an organization where women have the flexibility to plan their work around yoga classes, school plays, field trips, and visits to the nursing home without career penalties. These women have community support and support from other women with the same needs. A senior woman, who loves to shop but needs a little extra money, takes care of your grocery list once a week and prepares three meals for you that can be pulled out of the freezer during the week. An accountant taking care of her three year old at home helps with your investment planning and finances. Or maybe someone in the office has a teenage daughter to baby sit for you while you attend a dinner function. The possibilities are endless, and your life feels more complete. To build your own woman friendly organization:

• Find experienced, professional women who understand the importance of balance to provide equity investments and business advice.


• Design for workforce flexibility. A variation of Charles Handy’s (1989) Shamrock organization may be a good place to start. The first leaf represents the professional core workers. These are the people who are essential to the organization and hard to replace. The second leaf represents contracted work to people who specialize in a particular field and are able to do it at less cost than what you could in-house. Find women who would like to work as consultants or on a job by job basis. Finally, the third leaf represents part-time and temporary workers; perfect for women with children in school or retirees who need to supplement their income. This structure, with its flat hierarchy and small core, allows for reconfigurability.


• Support women vendors and employees by providing access to “helping services.” These include forming relationships with area restaurants, drycleaners, banks, travel agencies, housecleaning, babysitting, and eldercare businesses.


• Start your own franchise as a way to help women throughout the country. Women can have an impact on the way America works.