TalentedApps

Without a doubt acquiring a new skill is hard.  It takes time, practice and a willingness to fail.  I do not want to suggest that you should only attempt those things that you already know or do well.  That is just silly.

You should challenge yourself every day to try new things and learn new skills, just remember that some skills might not be within reach for you.    You might gain a basic level of competence after a lot of hard work but for some things you will never be outstanding.

This is a universal truth [always remember you are unique, just like everyone else].

So what happens when you are not gaining a job critical competency?  When you find yourself unable to get to an appropriate level of competence in a reasonable amount of time (as evidenced by lackluster performance feedback)  you should probably take a step back and regroup moment.

I’d like to say again, that if you do not have a good job fit you will not be top Talent.

Putting it another way, when you have a bad job fit you are probably getting labeled as a “poor performer”.  If you find yourself in a second performance discussion where the topic is does not meet expectations* I think it’s time to take a serious look at the question of job fit.

Instead of going down the mental path of inadequacy and low self esteem, take a moment and find your strengths (you can get help doing this for approx $14, well worth the investment) and then have a hard look at your job.  Is the job you are doing playing to your strengths (I’m going to take a wild guess that there might be a mismatch)?

Now comes the brave part.

Instead of just having yet another discussion with your boss about your lack of competence, do the adult thing and work with her to see if there is a better way to define your job to play to your strengths.

If this is not possible, you probably need to start thinking about getting a different role somewhere else.

If you don’t take action, you are probably going to live forever in the bottom left box of the Talent 9-box, and I promise you that is not the zip code in which you want to reside.

____________

*Also be on the look out for does not meet feedback hidden under a meets expectations rating, this happens more than I care to acknowledge.

These last two weeks I’ve been asking for a lot of help.  I thought it might be a good idea to give some tips on the subject, for those of you who might find the process troubling or intimidating.

Here are a few tips I’ve learned that can increase the probability of getting the help you need to succeed.

1. Getting help is a bit of a numbers game.  Be willing to ask for help early and often.  Recognize that people do not often say “no” they just fail to come through.   This is part of the process and is nothing to be discouraged about.  It is also nothing to hold against people.  Best to assume that they would help you if they could and that their lack of help reflects upon the fact that you might have asked the wrong thing to the wrong person.
2. Target your requests.  Do not ask a large group as your only strategy.  This *might* work but it probably won’t.  Better to split up what you need and distribute it out as specific requests to one or two people at a time.  Make the request specific and direct to an individual and they are much more likely to know what you need from them and are often more able to help you.
3. It works the best when you ask people to do something they are good at.  This will mean it doesn’t require a lot from them, and it gives you a large benefit.  This is another example of leveraging strengths.
4. Be thankful.  When you get help remember to let people know you are grateful and that they made a difference in your life.
5. Be helpful yourself. Giving back helping others with things that you know and are good at, is the best way to have people wanting to help you when you need it most.

The interesting thing about helping others is that it reflects well upon you and it makes you feel good.  On the other hand, getting help from others also feels really great.

So for everyone who has helped me get this TED application completed (and you know who you are) I am so very grateful. Please do allow me to return the favor when you need access to one of my strengths, it’s the least I can do.

Consider all the goodies you get from Dan’s Great Leadership blog regularly and then multiply that by 30.  That’s a full bag of candy!  Consider taking the day off just to eat read these treats …

including our own post referring back to Dan’s  Talent Management Challenge … oh my, I think I’ve gone into a sugar coma!

I am huge fan of Jason Seiden’s How to Self Destruct.  I read it in July and found it to be funny, insightful, and speaking directly to me as an aspiring leader at Oracle.

Jason is weeks away from unveiling his next book, Super Staying Power (which I have pre-ordered).  In the meantime, he’s giving away as many How to Self Destruct books as he can until this Friday, November 6.

Check it out and get these books for your deserving leaders!

Hey! Come back!

Before you roll your eyes on this one, start having flashbacks to terrible experiences with calculating standard deviations, or trying to wrap your head around multiple regression analysis, and then run screaming from this post, this is not about you trying to become an expert at statistics! Trust me!

It’s about you understanding how analytical tools and methods can help HR have an impact on applying talent to strategic success. Besides, no less than Josh Bersin said at the recent HR Technology Conference® 2009 Talent Management Analyst Panel, “Get used to it.” And that’s a good way to look at it. Too often, HR has been shut out of strategic input because of the perception that it doesn’t speak the language of analytics sufficiently to measure and understand the relationships between various parts of the business (e.g. Human Capital) and profit (or whatever financial result you wish.) Once you have that better understanding, it will enable you to make a stronger case for why HR can provide valuable input and leadership in business strategy and execution.

By now, we’ve had the importance of measuring pretty well pounded in, particularly in the context of Finance. Increasing your financial intelligence is key to participating more in driving strategic decision-making around applying talent to improve business results. Being able to show to senior management the link between what you know about your company’s talent to financial results entails both measuring talent in terms of levels of performance, competency, skills, connectedness, etc. as well as measuring relationships between those measures and the other parts of the business that drive financial performance. What do analytical skills have to do with measuring those parts and their relationships?

Measuring is not Counting

To help answer that question, let’s take an example from “How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business” by Douglas W. Hubbard. Picture the problem of measuring the population of fish in a lake; let’s say in order to know if a restocking effort was successful or not (a good ROI problem). A lot of people will say, “Drain the lake and count the fish.” They could then report there were exactly 22,573 fish and we’ll say that confirms the restocking investment was a success, although all the fish are now dead.

A better approach (certainly for the fish) entails using analytical methods to estimate the population of fish in the lake. If there is sufficient confidence in the estimate of the population before and after the restocking effort, you will be able to tell if the restocking effort was a success or not. Did you have to know every tiny detail of statistics to make a decision based on these estimates and the confidence level? No. How about to show the before and after picture to some “lake executive” who had to give the green light on the restocking effort? No. You just had to know enough about analytical methods to know that the application of them made sense in this case, and either determine you made the right call or get the point across to that executive.

As the authors of “The Differentiated Workforce: Transforming Talent into Strategic Impact” quoted a general manager, “I couldn’t do a regression analysis, but I knew what one was. And the results…made sense to me.” Further, they write, “Improved analytic literacy has a direct impact on the decision making at several levels in a typical HR organization…At the highest level, improved analytical literacy changes the perspective on the financial resources committed to HR…they consider a significant portion [of the HR budget] an investment.”

Principles of Uncertainty

HR labors under the false assumption that everybody else has “precise numbers” and there seems to be a perception that HR can’t come up with the “hard numbers.” The classic story is of the CEO asking the head of HR if they know the company’s headcount and the response is wishy-washy. The thinking is that people are either working for the company or they are not, so what’s the problem? What’s the count? Sure, in a company of a few hundred people, you might actually have a very precise figure. However, we know that depending on the industry, economic conditions, etc. as the number of employees gets larger, it gets a bit trickier to know the headcount with precision. There is a lot going on and even if you are using an HRMS system, the simple fact that humans are involved and entering transactions (or not), makes the number transient and constantly changing. In other words, one minute, you could see 59,268 and a minute later see 59,273.

This is not that different from the folks in Accounting keeping track of Receivables, the folks in Production keeping track of Inventory, or the folks in Development keeping track of Project Completion. In the case of Accounting and Finance, it gets even more interesting when it’s time to report; for instance, general accounting principles require the company to estimate the amount of Receivables that will be uncollectible and there isn’t any hard and fast equation for doing that. Different methods are used to estimate these values, some of them analytical.

The point, as Hubbard writes in his latest book, “The Failure of Risk Management: Why It’s Broken and How to Fix It” is that measurement is better understood as the reduction of uncertainty about the value of something. Once you see it that way and gain enough analytic literacy to feel comfortable with the results from those tools and methods, you’ll be able to move forward more readily with driving and demonstrating positive impact on strategic business results.

Photo by The Michael

Sure this dream is not really on a par with Martin Luther King Jr. or anything, but it’s still a dream.

I really want to get to a Ted Conference in person.  I mentioned this here and here.

Yes, I know this is totally out of my league, and yet I also know that this is something that will be life changing for me and overall a good idea.

Here is the why something like Ted is a uniquely good idea for me

• I love looking at things in a new way — most things I’ve seen recently that have really gotten me thinking have been from Ted
• I love the energy and thinking I do at conferences.  There is something in the process that really works for me.  I get most all my big ideas at conferences and it’s almost always the sum of a lot of little inputs vs. just one talk or presentation or person
• I love learning new stuff – I really thrive on gathering new ideas, facts, etc
• I use what I learn in action-oriented, creative ways.  I make connections others don’t and use those connections to do something specific, concrete and useful.
• I share what I learn.  I blog it, I talk about it I send emails that simultaneously blow peoples minds and bore them to tears.

Sure, all the above bullets probably cement my brand as a geek but I’m no longer in middle school and I think being a geek is cool.

Here’s what I’m not

Particularly well connected in a way that would get me to Ted and I’m also not the best essay writer.

Here’s what I’ve done.

1. Joined the Online Community
2. Started following the Ted twitter accounts here and here
3. Subscribed to the blog
4. Printed out the application and freaked out
5. Targeted the TedActive conference since a) it’s still open for 2010 registration and b) I suspect it’s a little more open to “unknowns”

Here’s what I need

1. Some good suggestions on how to best “stand out” with the questions below
2. Ideas on things I could do in addition to the list above
3. Someone(s) to review my profile and give me ideas to make it better, especially looking for things I’ve left off
4. An idea on how to pick references (I need two).   What kind of references would appeal to the people deciding Ted attendance?

Here is the application questions (remember I want suggestions that are true about me, I’m not looking for textbook perfect answers or anything just better ways to describe me)

1. If a friend were to describe your accomplishments in up to three sentences what would s/he say?
2. What other achievements would you like to share?
3. What are you passionate about (work, creative output, issues, communities…)
4. What do we need to know about you that we didn’t ask?
5. (Optional) Can you share a memorable anecdote from your life that will give us a further sense of what makes you tick?

Thanks in advance for helping with Team Meg!  Direct email responses are also welcome.

Make sure to take a tour of HRBartender’s Carnival of HR! Blogger Sharlyn Larby has assembled a tasty “Halloween Spirits” theme, categorizing a huge number of diverse posts from a wide sample of blogs by drink type (e.g. soda, hot beverage, mixed drinks, etc.)

This collection both saves you time by bringing together submitted posts into one place for you to quickly scan (Sharlyn introduces each with a brief description) as well as provides you with an opportunity to discover blogs you might not already know about.

In addition, Sharlyn has taken the effort to gather all the twitter accounts of the blog authors and put them into a TweepML list so that you can easily follow them all in one fell swoop. Thank you, HR Bartender!

Photo by Bisayan lady

Oh my goodness.  Our friends at FOT have done it again.  They have set a new challenge for Talent bloggers using scientific methods no doubt, and TalentedApps came into the top 30.

Those of you who remember our Cinderella story of yore, will know that we are especially excited that we didn’t have to beg friends and family to vote for us.  (instead we’ve just been begging them to read our stuff which frankly, seems fair…)

Do go check out our friends at FOT, as well as the rest of the rated blogs.  We at TalentedApps, are amazed and honored to be included with such a group.

Amy’s post suggested that we cannot actually ignore our flaws, if they are holding us back, we have to fix them.   I’m sure we all know that is hard.

I have recently decided that one of the reasons it’s hard, is that we keep trying to fix the problem the same way, decide it doesn’t work, and get into a frustration loop.

To illustrate my point, I have another great “Meg can be clueless sometimes” story.  What can I say?  As the heroine in my own novel, I’m a walking wealth of material.

One of the problems with blogging,  is that people might expect you to have decent grasp of grammar.  In my case, I have two fundamental issues with grammar, well, other than never actually “getting it”.

First, I am a bad speller.  This isn’t too big of a problem since there is spellcheck.  This catches the majority of the issues for me and the rest I blame on typos.

Second, I forget things like commas.  This I [mostly] solve by adding a lot of them randomly prior to publish,  hoping no one will notice those that are misplaced and/or missing. [Seriously, the edit process for me typically involves inserting a handful of commas and hoping for the best].

I am also on the lookout for rationalization opportunities, so god bless Penelope Trunk, who told me it’s not important.

Here is the problem, sometimes flaws  sneak out even when we try to mask them.   One of my grammar problems was kindly pointed out to me by my buddy Marcie.  The problem was, my seeming lack of comprehension of a difference between then and than.  Well more accurately, I didn’t seem to realize there were two different words, I only seemed to acknowledge the existence of then [since all coders know it could never be if/than (!)].    Marcie was even nice enough to give me dictionary links to both words, attempting to help me fix this problem.

OK, so now I knew of a problem and was intent to fix it, but I soon realized that the definitions didn’t help me.

In an attempt do something,  I first tried getting comfortable with the word than.  Since it had been under served in the past, I promoted it to prime time and used it instead.  Interestingly, more people noticed that mistake (I’m guessing I’m not the only one who has this problem) and now I was getting more frequent you keep using that word notes.

As I do, I started to ask for more people to help me figure this out (and fix it) and my buddy Louise, made an interesting observation that: Americans pronunciation of then and than are almost identical.

As an auditory learner, I have actually managed to merge the two words into one in my own head.  In fact, the majority of my spelling problems are not really phonics problems as I had always thought, they are pronunciation problems.

When I started hearing Louise’s voice saying then vs. than in my head (yes there are a LOT of voices in my head, don’t judge!) I was on my way to being fixed.  I now read the word correctly, and therefore have context understanding that I can use to my benefit.

The point of this post, is not to bore you with the inner workings of the voices in my head, but to suggest that sorting out the root of the problem, for you, can be very helpful in finding a fix that actually works.

Odds are, the only way you can get to that is getting observations from others, since you are probably not aware of what you are doing in the first place.  Just more evidence that you really do need a team you to help you succeed.

Oh, and now that I’m on to this pronounciation thing, I’m going to take another swing at affect vs. effect (which both sound like uh-fect in my world).  I’m going to give them a long “a” and a long “e” sound and see if I can’t suss out a way to ever use the word affect correctly.    Can’t hurt to try.

Emmett Brown - Scientific Leader

Actually, it’s more than a couple … maybe 100 or so according to Lominger.

But just having missed 2 questions on Dan McCarthy’s Talent Management Challenge , I want to talk about those specifically:

(Take the test here and find the answers here.  You are bound to find some surprises!)

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First, What is the most likely outcome of people focusing exclusively on developing their strengths and doing only those jobs that match their strengths?

A. It would only work well for those with the right strengths to begin with
B. People would be happier and more productive because they wouldn’t have to worry about their weaknesses
C. The strengths would get stronger, overwhelming any weaknesses that might get in the way
D. Strengths are likely to be overdone or not balanced, and unaddressed weaknesses would become blind spots
E. More people would become strong performers over time

I should have spotted the word “exclusively” and realized my answer of “E. More people would become strong performers over time” was overly optimistic.  My team recently conducted a Strengthsfinder exercise and we found it to be very valuable.  We learned a lot about ourselves, a lot about each other, and it seeded us with concrete plans on how to grow and get better.   Apparently, I missed Dan’s excellent post on The Perils of Accentuating the Positive in which he reviews the book of the same name.  “In a nutshell …,” he says “the ‘celebrate your strengths’ mantra is a feel-good, lazy way of side-stepping the hard work required to develop and be successful. It’s giving leaders ‘permission to stagnate””.

Ouch.  That one really hurts.  That will teach me to fall behind in my blog reading!  It also gives me a lot to think about.  I used to beat myself up a lot about my weaknesses.  When I discovered “strengths”, it gave me a refreshing attitude adjustment.  I felt more confident and motivated in my ability to be successful as a leader.  And I think that’s good.  What I’m learning is that beating myself up about my weaknesses too is actually good and healthy.  It’s all part of the wacky self-development puzzle.

(The right answer is D. Strengths are likely to be overdone or not balanced, and unaddressed weaknesses would become blind spots)

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Second, How do high performers rate themselves compared to low performers?

A. Rate themselves higher than others rate them
B. Rate themselves the same as others rate them
C. Rate themselves lower than others do
D. Rate themselves lower than others do and lower than low performers
E. Rate themselves at the same level as low performers

I was pretty sure that A & B weren’t right and I got tripped up on the semantics of C & D, so I picked “E. Rate themselves at the same level as low performers.“

The right answer is “D. Rate themselves lower than others do and lower than low performers.” This question, along with another question in Dan’s quiz (“Who is the least accurate judge of a manager’s job performance?”) tells us that self-assessments are meaningless and 360 feedback is a must.  This makes sense and it’s not surprising, but I’m not sure what to do with this information as I look to advise employees, mentees, not to mention myself.  There is other solid evidence out there that we should be marketing and positioning ourselves for more opportunities as well as developing self-awareness of our goodnesses (in addition to our weaknesses).  So I wonder: should I be advising my people to give themselves credit or be overly humble (as a good high performer should …)?

Believe it or not I try to shy away from a feminist agenda with my blogging.  Typically I only resort to it when I’m completely lost for material.    This week, I couldn’t help but wonder what the world was up to when I found myself stumbling upon several items covering the topic.

So I put my dilemma out to my friends and everyone said I should give it a go.  So here you are, what I’ve learned this week about Women and leadership.

First from our friends at Forbes.com they cover the top 10 unwritten rules for working women.  My take away from this one is that the speak up more advice should go double for women.

Next, thanks to @LexyMartin for pointing to the Shriver Report that shows that today women are more than 50% of the workforce (up from 1/3 in 1967) and that in 2/3 of the families women are primary or co-breadwinners, in other words, we are not just working in larger numbers, we need to be working to make ends meet.  The recession is making it more pronounced when 3/4 of the jobs lost since Dec 2007 have been by men.  In addition women are getting equal (or better) opportunities when it comes to education.

Women receive 52 percent of high school diplomas, 62 percent of associate’s degrees, 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees and 50 percent of doctoral degrees and professional degrees.

Next, I read the McKinsey report on Centered Leadership where they had some excellent advice for professional women in leadership. I really loved the charter of this study

Women start careers in business and other professions with the same level of intelligence, education, and commitment as men. Yet comparatively few reach the top echelons.

This gap matters not only because the familiar glass ceiling is unfair, but also because the world has an increasingly urgent need for more leaders. All men and women with the brains, the desire, and the perseverance to lead should be encouraged to fulfill their potential and leave their mark.

The five broad dimensions they cover include

• Find your strengths and put them to work for you
• Manage your energy
• Positive framing, adopting a more constructive view of your world
• Expand your horizons, Gain the resilience to move ahead
• Connecting, identify who can help you and build stronger relationships
• Engaging –  finding your voice, take risks, accept opportunities

And finally the October version of the Talent Management magazine has it’s cover article titled “It’s a man’s world” where they make the assertion that a “female friendly company” is more gender balanced, having, on average 52% women employees vs. 38% in a male dominated firm.  It also suggests that you must deliberately fill the pipeline with women.

So where do I find myself as a result of all this reading?

Probably back where I started actually.  I am inclined to tell my girls how lucky they are to be young now.  That the opportunities for girls are greater today than ever before.  I also think that it is up to those of us in the workforce today, to continue to re-define the stereotype of what it means to be a working woman, mother, etc.

I believe that those strong women who have made the leap from worker-bee to leader, from doer to thinker have done all women a service.  I think that each of us have a responsibility to use our talents to the fullest, to continue to make progress for all women and to set new examples for the next generation about women in leadership.

Anything else is just complaining.

What do you think?

I must first confess that fairness is not a core value of mine.  I know people for which being fair is important, but I’ve never experienced or expected fairness, so I do not empathize that need.  If fairness is an important core value of yours, it might be best to just skip this post and come back another day.

That’s not to say that people were especially mean to me or anything, it’s just that I’m the youngest, and in that role you learn rather quickly that life is not fair.  You are slower, you are not old enough, you are not invited, etc. etc.  Now, as a parent of two, I realize that fair is the least common denominator solution (and one I confess I resort to a lot more in parenting than I do in management but that is a different blog!).

As a manager, I do not believe that fairness is the goal.  I believe job fit and outstanding performance are.  To that end, I look to find what works with each person, and attempt to give them what they need to be their best.

Since management is about working with people and not robots, it is logical that what each person needs is not going to be the same.

When you come to terms with the fact that you are not attempting to be fair, you are let loose of a lot of unnecessary baggage with management.  You start focusing on doing the right thing and recognize that what is right, can be different for different people.

Is it easier to be fair.  Sure it is, but it is often much less effective.

When in Rome…

si fueris Romae, Romano vivitomore; si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi*

My last post asked: how can the perception of HR’s function as being primarily about governance and compliance oversight be dealt with, in order to allow and encourage its role in maximizing the strategic impact of talent?

A key first step is to learn “the language of business” i.e. Finance. Why? Here’s a list from a book** I recommended a while back, outlining the benefits of financial literacy to HR:

• Move HR from a Tactical to a Strategic Organization – be trusted with organization and talent development investment decisions.
• Evaluate Your Company Critically – spot trends or problems and understand more of the stories behind the numbers.
• Understand the Business – knowing how your company makes money is key to your HR strategy.
• Understand the Bias in the Numbers – have the power to challenge, when called for, the assumptions made by the finance and accounting departments.
• Form Relationships with Finance – help to align more the efforts of finance and HR for their mutual benefit.
• Use Numbers and Financial Tools to Make and Analyze Decisions – improve your ability to make better investment choices regarding projects and programs.

It turns out that Trish McFarlane at HRRingleader is addressing this same step in an “HR 101″ series on the Creative Chaos Consultant blog, devoted to what an HR professional really needs to know to be successful. There’s also a great article, “Do HR Managers Have the Skills They Need?” by the same authors of the book, which covers exactly the discussion Beth Carvin and I were having here. Namely, it isn’t all on HR’s head or senior management’s head to enable HR to have a positive impact on strategic use of talent, but a shared responsibility. Here are the factors they listed at the root of the problem:

• Avoidance – HR folks not “dealing with it” and learning about the numbers (as  Josh Bersin and Naomi Bloom said at last month’s HR Technology 2009 Conference(r) Talent Management analyst panel and Naomi’s closing keynote).
• Perception – Even when HR professionals do know the numbers, the business side still retains the outdated notion that they don’t.
• Assumptions – Exhibited when companies don’t encourage their employees to be on the earnings call, for instance, because “it’s too complicated” and “they wouldn’t understand.”
• Trust – A common theme repeated in this blog. In this case, not sharing financial data with employees because you don’t trust them results in people having nothing real to learn from or apply their learning to. Maybe that was the intended effect.

Note that some of the last two issues are not limited to HR, but can be universally applied to all company managers and employees. In fact, there is another article, “The Dismal Financial IQ of US Managers” that covers this pervasive problem and its consequences in more detail. Even though the authors have a vested interest in pointing out these problems (they have a couple of books and a consultancy that address them), the impact is unmistakable.

*”If you are in Rome, live in the Roman way, if you are elsewhere, live as they do there”

- attributed to St. Ambrose (from Wiktionary)

**Financial Intelligence for HR Professionals: What You Really Need to Know About the Numbers by Karen Berman, Joe Knight, and John Case. Despite the drab title, this book is actually quite fun to read (really!) and does not take very long to read (a few hours.) It’s written in a friendly style that comes right out and tells the HR reader which things matter, how they matter, and which things really aren’t as crucial to know so you don’t get distracted by them. Each section is loaded with examples from recent history (especially scandals) linking HR areas of responsibility to financial problems for companies.

Photo by pdbreen

Conversations among employees (vs. broadcasts from corporate) have always taken place in organizations – they just haven’t always been easily seen by the leaders. These conversations continue to take place inside, outside and across organization boundaries and recently, social technologies have substantially amplified their volume. These amplified conversations then get the attention of management, and not always in a constructive way.

The enterprise’s interests are better served by participating in these conversations, particularly through the effective use of social technologies, rather than by ignoring, rejecting, or banning their use. The result is not only higher employee productivity, more effective innovation, and greater employee engagement. It also results in the organization making more informed business decisions by having a better understanding of what makes the company “tick” and by being more aware of key events and conditions. Finally, the organization can have at least some input into the conversation as well, but only if it participates.

What are the conversations about?

Steve Boese posted a great summary of the findings in an IBM research paper on how employees were using social networks and why. One of the paper’s most eye-opening findings, and one that organizations should note, is that employees appear to use social network within the enterprise more for reaching out to employees they don’t already know and for building stronger bonds with them and their other “weak ties.” This is interesting to know as it is in contrast to what most detractors cite as why social networks within the enterprise would be a productivity drain. Those detractors often label it “Facebook for the Enterprise” and point out that a primary use of Facebook is just to keep current on what close friends are doing and gossip on things that have nothing to do with work, ergo it is a waste of time in the workplace. The research paper shows the error in thinking that is the primary use.

Beyond reaching out to create and build stronger ties, what else is happening? As mentioned in this earlier post on last month’s HR Technology® Conference, Nokia’s Matthew Hanwell related how his company gradually adopted internal use of social technologies. Steve also has a terrific summary of the points from that presentation. It turns out that employees sometimes also used the social technologies for general discussions about work. For instance, they might discuss overall state of the market, business profitability, and so on. They might discuss various benefit programs. In general, topics often on employees’ minds regarding things that impact their employment.

The upshot is that employees use social technologies to discuss the things they would still talk about even if the technologies didn’t exist or were banned. It’s the same thing they have always talked about and for good reason; it’s their career and their livelihood. For instance, the IBM paper shows that why employees have these conversations over internal social networks is reflected in the way they use them. Both developing one’s career and campaigning for a project are particularly assisted by reaching out and strengthening weak ties. That notion was covered in this previous post about the advantages of being more “central” in a given network through the creation and maintenance of diverse networks. You get more benefit from diversity of connections than simply pure quantity. (More to the point of this post, it’s about the diverse conversations and not just the connections themselves – you have to actually use the connections.)

How can the enterprise join the conversations?

Hanwell’s presentation showed that at first, fear drove much of the reluctance to permit social technologies in the enterprise in the first place. What would employees say? Could moderators keep up? In other words, worst-case thinking that in turn triggered further rationalizing rejection – such as governance costs – of the technologies. However, once key stakeholders understood that the conversations were happening anyway (including using external social technologies like Facebook) and that there was much to be gained by observing and participating in them, they gave the green light.

Most obstacles to the enterprise joining the conversation are self-inflicted. During the HR Happy Hour at the HR Technology conference, we talked about how organizations need help in overcoming the fear that puts up obstacles to successful adoption and use of social technologies. Jason Seiden pointed out the “risk-aversion” obstacle – in particular how it surfaces in staff departments like HR – which in many cases see only downside in backing an initiative like this. This is very much driven by how HR is viewed by the organization. As long as a given HR department is exclusively chartered with (and therefore measured on) compliance and governance oversight, and not with maximizing the strategic impact of talent, putting social technologies under its control will likely result in not much adoption, use, or benefit.

How can that perception be dealt with? We’ll hit that in another HR Technology – themed post soon.

Photo by cliff1066™

I was reminded, while reading Kris Dunn’s HR Technology ® Shootout rundown, of the traps that we overachieving developers can fall into when creating software.  Namely:

• Bestowing technical wizardry … for technical wizardry sake
• Delivering the perfect solution … for one particular customer
• Fashioning a shiny new widget … for oohs and ahhs in a demo

Thing is, these aren’t easy to do.  They require talent.  It takes conceptual savvy to craft a technological innovation, analytical skills to persevere through a customer’s requirements, and a keen eye to cultivate a visual masterpiece.  We find ourselves congratulating and rewarding ourselves when we make them happen.

And yet, they are traps.  They are not useful to our customers.  Not in isolation.  Yes, we must engage our users with visual appeal.  Yes, we must exploit the power of technology to help our users make better decisions.  Yes, we absolutely must listen to what our customers want.  And, most importantly, we must make what we are building useful to the people we are building it for.

It ain’t easy.  In fact, I’d say it’s nearly impossible.  The Holy Grail of Software Development, so to speak.  Shiny, innovative and useful. That’s what it’s all about.

What does it take? First, it takes time and patience – a realization that many customers must be consulted and several iterations are required.  Second, it takes a diverse set of talents – technical, functional, user experience – working together and appreciating eachothers’ value.  And, third, it takes a whole lot of luck.

As a Maximizer theme the concept of Top Talent is an especially personal one.   In fact, I have managed to get a team of directs that are all Achievers, which was something I knew about them, before I even knew there was such a theme.

When I think about using a Talent solution to get business value, I have to know what business leaders want.  What keeps a business leader up at night? Is it wondering if their team will meet their Performance bell curve?  Or if they will be using a 3 or 5 point rating scale?  I’m guessing not.  In fact the entire performance process is a means to an end, to a business person (or conversely a PITA but I’d rather not cover that part in this blog).

What a business leader wants is to be successful.  Successful in their business, seen as capable to their leadership and exceeding on their objectives.  For business leaders to scale they need teams who are able to deliver for them.  Here is where we get back to top talent and job fit.

When people are doing the job that is best suited to their strengths, they become top talent.  Making that connection between individual motivation and job role is not just a touchy-feely ideal, it’s smart business.

The better I can position people to do what they do best, the more they do for me. The more they do for me, the more I can do for my boss and my organization.  So, to me as a business leader, the more top talent I have the more successful I am.

So what I want from a talent solution, is to help me get people aligned into job roles based upon their strengths.  When I can do this, I get all the goodness from the rest of the talent strategies.  Goal alignment and attainment become easy,  engagement improves and overall output  is optimized.

To make all this work for me, I need more data.  I need data that I have never captured before.  Not just your competencies but your strengths.  Not just your career plan, but your motivations.  The more rich data I have, the better job I can do getting people to become top talent.

So now we are back to systems and scale.  Systems today have a better ability to gather and make use of data.  With the rise of social software, and a heightened awareness of the importance of a personal brand, people are volunteering more data than ever before.

These are exciting times for those of us who are allowed to find unique opportunities between technology and business. For awhile now I’ve been anticipating a shift in what defines a talent solution.  Initially I thought it was just my own personal boredom with having done this for so long, but now I realize that what I have really been doing is a lot of thin slicing to get to the most obvious of “a ha” conclusions.

The job of a talent solution is not really to measure talent.  The goal of a talent solution is to use the measurement of talent to drive better business results.  If you are just doing the former and not getting the latter you are missing out.  It’s time to think bigger about what can and should be possible with technology.

Are you doing that today?  Is that your talent strategy?  If not why not?  What is your plan?  Hit me with the comments and give me your ideas, I promise to use them for your benefit.

Jon Ingham has always done a terrific job at bringing useful knowledge to everyone, whether it be in Strategic Human Capital or Social Media in Business. He’s done it again with the latest HR Carnival, which focuses on social business and includes my post on social business thinking at HR Tech.

Jon has collected and organized approximately 50(!) submission from a combination of well-known blogs in this space as well as some that are likely to be new to you. This presents you a tremendous opportunity to efficiently sample a diverse set of observations, opinions, tips, insights and both decide to add them to your feed subscriptions as well as simply add to your knowledge and improving your thinking. A special bonus for Twitter users – Jon has also included a “Follow List” of Carnival contributors – truly a gold mine of useful info!

Kudos to Jon for assembling such an enriching Carnival! Be sure to check it out!

Photo by McBeth

I was very impressed reading the discussion on SystematicHR about how a “Global perspective” is just that, a perspective.

What I find so interesting about the topic, is that it points out a bit of an existential question, how absolute are your absolutes? [and as a geek I love these kinds of things].

For those doing business in the US, things like EEO classifications are non-negotiable and collecting information about religion is forbidden.  While in other countries the exact opposite is true.

When designing solutions to account for these kinds of complexities, you need not only understand the rules, and how they vary from location to location, you need to empathize with the reasons behind those rules.  Why are those legislative requirements put into place?  What does that mean for the people using the system and how they see the world?

To be able to use this information in a productive way, you need to invest, this does not happen by accident.

It is for this reason that I’m so grateful that we have a global customers and a global team.  Having a global perspective is not only a competitive advantage, it is an opportunity for me to challenge what I know and learn what I do not.

Our world is changing, business is changing and what we know to be absolute must change with it or we will find ourselves on the wrong side of the Darwinian conclusion.

That’s right people, Oracle Openworld is just around the corner and the TalentedApps group will be represented.

If you plan to be at the conference and want to connect, please  let us know, the best part of conferences are the connections you make with people.

If you are looking for ideas on sessions I would recommend:

Floyd’s ORCLville has an OpenWord 2009 series of posts
HCM Marketing has posted thier Focus on documents

If you are a blogger, there is a meetup organized by the OTN group that sounds like fun.

Hope you are coming, Openworld is really an event that should not be missed.

What competencies do you track in your library?   Adaptability?  Problem Solving?  Collaboration?  Innovation?

I agree that these are all excellent capabilities to keep mindful of, to develop and nourish, and to call out when you see them in people.  But, what a manager or business leader really wants to know is will this person “get it done”?  Will they make the project successful no matter what? Will they get the deal done with the expected margin?  Will they take care of everything so I don’t have to worry and can spend my time doing something else??

Getting it done is a quality that encompasses several competencies, such as adapting to change, solving problems, and collaborating effectively.  At the same time, it is mutually exclusive.  Just because someone is a good problem solver doesn’t mean they have the tenacity to get the solution executed.

Getting it done is a quality that spans career levels - though it morphs from “doing” to “making things happen.”  The traditional competencies “Results Orientation” and “Driving Results” touch on this quality, but still do not paint the whole picture.  These competencies suggest that the result is the only thing, when in reality, getting it done requires a balance of priorities – knowing when to work relationships, when to plan for catastrophes, and when to put nose to the grindstone.

Managers and Business Leaders actually track this quality today.  They just do so in their memory, not in a system.  Most jobs are found through social networks today because “Mike” remembers that so-and-so could get it done.  Or he trusts so-and-so to tell him who else can get it done.

How about you?  Do you know who gets it done?

Hat tip to Jerri Walker of Oracle Consulting who seeded this idea.  Thanks Jerri!