Most people will not get to know what their obituary says before they die. However, there have been some noticeable exceptions.
There’s Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. In 1888, when his brother, Ludvig, died, a French newspaper thought Alfred had passed away and printed an obituary. The headline for his erroneous obituary read “The Merchant of Death is Dead.” The article said that Nobel “became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before.” Nobel, upon realizing that this was how the world would remember him, changed his will and gave all his money to set up the Nobel Prizes. He would associate himself with the Peace Prize.
(Another person who got to read his obituary before he died was PT Barnum of Barnum and Bailey Circus fame. When he was on his deathbed in 1891, Barnum remarked that he wished he could read his obituary before he died because the press always said nice things about him. So the New York Evening Sun obliged and printed his obituary a full month early.)
During a coaching session a derailed executive said: “I want my kids to be proud of me.” After reporting any negative behavior I would ask, “Would your kids be proud of you if they knew you were doing this?” When the answer was “no” he thought twice about acting in a negative manner. The result was a decrease in those actions that were derailing his career.
Why wait until you die? Get some 360-degree coaching right now. It’s going to be difficult to hear, but it will be more difficult for your people to tell you.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Three Tips to Avoid Hiring a Bad Life Science Exec
Of course, nobody likes to terminate an executive. So here are my three tips for avoiding the problem, taken from my book The Prodigal Executive.
Tip # 1 Hire Great in the First Place
By screening potential employees for past behaviors and attitudes, you can dramatically reduce the costs of hiring bad people, and make your workplace more productive, happier, safer, and more profitable. Combine an efficient prescreening assessment with an effective pre-employment background check, and you can cut your risk by half or more.
Tip # 2 Hire and Promote for Job Fit
A well-documented study, published in Harvard Business Review concludes that "Job Match" is by far the most reliable predictor of effectiveness on the job (Greenberg and Greenberg, "Job Matching for Better Sales Performance." Harvard Business Review, Volume 58, No. 5, Sept 1, 1980). The study considered many factors including the age, sex, race, education and experience of approximately 300,000 subjects. It evaluated their job performance and found no significant statistical differences, except in the area of "Job Match." The conclusion was this: "It's not experience that counts or college degrees or other accepted factors; success hinges on a fit with the job."
If success is determined by job fit, your challenge is to predict that fit. This requires that you measure thinking style, behavioral traits, and occupational interests, and that you do so in a cost-effective way. Assessments are an efficient way to predict job fit. With an assessment, an employer can assure that the people hired fit their new jobs; that the people promoted can succeed in the new position; that employees can identify a career path likely to work; and that newly opened jobs can be filled from within, with a high probability of success.
Tip # 3 Improve Managers and Keep Your Best People
People quit people, they don’t quit jobs. Guess which people they are most likely to quit? Hint: Managers have the most significant impact on a worker’s daily activities, the mood of the work setting, and the reward structure on the job.
Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your managers, and improving their most critical skills, is a key component of keeping your best people. In this economy, budgets for training have been curtailed, making it difficult to find the money to improve management skills. Many companies are concerned about wasting money on training employees that will leave. As author, salesperson and speaker Zig Ziglar said, though, “If you think it’s expensive to train people and lose them, try not training them and keeping them!”
Best wishes with coaching the derailed executives in your business. Unfortunately there will always be know-it-alls, bullies, prima donnas, and passive aggressors. But don’t tolerate them for one day. If they were exceptional once, then coach these prodigal executives to return to greatness.
Tip # 1 Hire Great in the First Place
By screening potential employees for past behaviors and attitudes, you can dramatically reduce the costs of hiring bad people, and make your workplace more productive, happier, safer, and more profitable. Combine an efficient prescreening assessment with an effective pre-employment background check, and you can cut your risk by half or more.
Tip # 2 Hire and Promote for Job Fit
A well-documented study, published in Harvard Business Review concludes that "Job Match" is by far the most reliable predictor of effectiveness on the job (Greenberg and Greenberg, "Job Matching for Better Sales Performance." Harvard Business Review, Volume 58, No. 5, Sept 1, 1980). The study considered many factors including the age, sex, race, education and experience of approximately 300,000 subjects. It evaluated their job performance and found no significant statistical differences, except in the area of "Job Match." The conclusion was this: "It's not experience that counts or college degrees or other accepted factors; success hinges on a fit with the job."
If success is determined by job fit, your challenge is to predict that fit. This requires that you measure thinking style, behavioral traits, and occupational interests, and that you do so in a cost-effective way. Assessments are an efficient way to predict job fit. With an assessment, an employer can assure that the people hired fit their new jobs; that the people promoted can succeed in the new position; that employees can identify a career path likely to work; and that newly opened jobs can be filled from within, with a high probability of success.
Tip # 3 Improve Managers and Keep Your Best People
People quit people, they don’t quit jobs. Guess which people they are most likely to quit? Hint: Managers have the most significant impact on a worker’s daily activities, the mood of the work setting, and the reward structure on the job.
Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your managers, and improving their most critical skills, is a key component of keeping your best people. In this economy, budgets for training have been curtailed, making it difficult to find the money to improve management skills. Many companies are concerned about wasting money on training employees that will leave. As author, salesperson and speaker Zig Ziglar said, though, “If you think it’s expensive to train people and lose them, try not training them and keeping them!”
Best wishes with coaching the derailed executives in your business. Unfortunately there will always be know-it-alls, bullies, prima donnas, and passive aggressors. But don’t tolerate them for one day. If they were exceptional once, then coach these prodigal executives to return to greatness.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Prodigal Executive Now Available on Amazon.com
Some derailed executives create toxic workplaces that cause good employees to flee. Other former star employees cause customers and peers to complain in ever increasing numbers. So why not just fire them?
Ah, that is the dilemma. Often these prima donnas are extremely valuable employees. Some bring in millions of dollars to the company. Others have an irreplaceable specialized skill or body of knowledge.
So what is a company to do? According to new research, 8 out of 10 of these derailed executives can be coached to get back on track.
“Before you as a manager get involved in any kind of coaching of a derailed executive or employee, you should ask if this particular person has been given feedback about their obnoxious behavior" says Bruce Heller, Ph.D., author of “The Prodigal Executive: How to Coach Executives Too Painful to Keep, Too Valuable to Fire” (Author House, July 2009)
Dr. Heller reports that in two decades of experience throughout corporate America helping toxic bosses and star employees whose star has fallen, only about half have been given feedback on their errant behavior. He advocates these four ironclad coaching rules:
Ironclad Rule 1. When you do give feedback, make sure that it is data based, and behavioral based. Make sure it is not hearsay. For instance, what is the exact behavior the individual is showing that causes concern?
Ironclad Rule 2. Always use the sandwich technique. Open with positive feedback, then give the negative feedback, and then close with positive feedback. Work toward salvaging some of the self esteem of the individual, by saying :"You're quite a valuable component of our company. You're highly successful and we want to do everything we can to salvage our relationship. However, we have some concerns, and our concerns are: A B, C, D, and E."
Ironclad Rule 3. Your goal should be to gain some buy in from the individual. One of the mistakes supervisors make after giving some coaching feedback is that they don't schedule the next meeting. Before both of you leave after the feedback, say "Let's you and I meet next Friday morning at 8:30 am and let's continue this conversation."
Ironclad Rule 4. There needs to be some consequence so the person doesn't just blow off the feedback session. So you put the idea of separation out there. They need to know their behavior could lead to termination. If employees don’t have a consequence, they don’t take the coaching seriously.
In his book Dr. Heller explains how eight out of 10 derailed executives can be saved; six myths that hold many companies back from coaching; when to keep 'em and when to fire 'em; how to give feedback to toxic bosses and derailed executives; three keys to an executive comeback, and how to help derailed executives out the door if they really need to go.
Ah, that is the dilemma. Often these prima donnas are extremely valuable employees. Some bring in millions of dollars to the company. Others have an irreplaceable specialized skill or body of knowledge.
So what is a company to do? According to new research, 8 out of 10 of these derailed executives can be coached to get back on track.
“Before you as a manager get involved in any kind of coaching of a derailed executive or employee, you should ask if this particular person has been given feedback about their obnoxious behavior" says Bruce Heller, Ph.D., author of “The Prodigal Executive: How to Coach Executives Too Painful to Keep, Too Valuable to Fire” (Author House, July 2009)
Dr. Heller reports that in two decades of experience throughout corporate America helping toxic bosses and star employees whose star has fallen, only about half have been given feedback on their errant behavior. He advocates these four ironclad coaching rules:
Ironclad Rule 1. When you do give feedback, make sure that it is data based, and behavioral based. Make sure it is not hearsay. For instance, what is the exact behavior the individual is showing that causes concern?
Ironclad Rule 2. Always use the sandwich technique. Open with positive feedback, then give the negative feedback, and then close with positive feedback. Work toward salvaging some of the self esteem of the individual, by saying :"You're quite a valuable component of our company. You're highly successful and we want to do everything we can to salvage our relationship. However, we have some concerns, and our concerns are: A B, C, D, and E."
Ironclad Rule 3. Your goal should be to gain some buy in from the individual. One of the mistakes supervisors make after giving some coaching feedback is that they don't schedule the next meeting. Before both of you leave after the feedback, say "Let's you and I meet next Friday morning at 8:30 am and let's continue this conversation."
Ironclad Rule 4. There needs to be some consequence so the person doesn't just blow off the feedback session. So you put the idea of separation out there. They need to know their behavior could lead to termination. If employees don’t have a consequence, they don’t take the coaching seriously.
In his book Dr. Heller explains how eight out of 10 derailed executives can be saved; six myths that hold many companies back from coaching; when to keep 'em and when to fire 'em; how to give feedback to toxic bosses and derailed executives; three keys to an executive comeback, and how to help derailed executives out the door if they really need to go.
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