"Re-board" Your People During Tough Times

As organizations are experiencing lay-offs and restructuring, it is important for human resource leaders to pay close attention to their high performers and high potentials. A new trend is to leverage the key components of the existing leadership onboarding process to “re-board” this key population of employees. Re-boarding is defined as connecting with the key employees in an effort to engage and retain them.

Elements of your leadership onboarding process that can be applied to “re-boarding” are:
(a) Providing knowledge regarding the current strategy of the organization, impact of changes on the leader’s role and team
(b) Coaching leaders about who their key stakeholders are in the “new” and how to build and develop relationships with the key stakeholders
(c) Give the high performers and potentials actionable feedback regarding what they need to: start doing, stop doing and keep doing to be successful and move forward

By leveraging these key elements you will increase the engagement level and likelihood of retaining your high performers and high potentials.

Even in a recessed economy, the star performers have a choice as to where they work. Make sure that they choose your organization.

President Obama, Financial Fatcats and Feedback

So far, the president has figured out what the financial institutions' leaders have not. Feedback, whether solicited or unsolicited must be heeded. President has done a fairly good job of using his feedback (called in the political world, mandates, approval ratings and poll responses) and converting it into action that is supported by a vast majority of the country.

The financial fatcats, on the other hand, cry for aid, then hand out bonuses and buy jets. The feedback, or in this case, backlash, from the American people did not dissuade them much from business as usual. In fact, some even suggested that cancelling elaborate recognition events "punished" the hard-working people of their organizations.

What?

I am all for reward and recognition, but only in the context of what is appropriate for the work results and the economic environment--or for any unsubsidized company that is celebrating success and profit.

But back to feedback. The president and these financial leaders' current state is a glaring contrast of how feedback can, and should be, used and the result of what happens when it is ignored.

What can the leaders of your organizations take-away from this current situation?

Hopefully, they will recognize that it's always better to ask for feedback, then wait until it catches up with you. By that time, it may be much more negative than positive and hard to swallow.

Next, when it's given--acknowledge it! Nothing can back-fire more than candid feedback that a leader tries to "defend" or "explain away". Accept it, you don't have to agree with it, but it is extremely important to understand the source and why that feedback was given.

Then, make a plan. Identify the most compelling or most reoccurring feedback that has been given and figure out how to change the behaviors associated with it.

Lastly, communicate and ask others to hold you accountable. This is an important step in the proces because it keeps you honest, and it helps the people who gave you the feedback have "some skin in the game".

Let's hope for our country and its economy that the financial leaders start to "get" this and the president continues his example.

I'm good! (yeah, right) Getting Feedback to New Leaders

Yes, there still are some companies who are bringing on new leaders. Whether they are filling open positions, promoting or transitioning people within a company, new leaders are still in need of help. This help should be in the form of a formal onboarding process.

By now, most organizations "get" that new leaders need access to critical information and also need help identifying with whom they need to forge relationships. BUT--do these new leaders really know how they are being perceived and experienced in the first few weeks and months on the job?

Probably not.

Most HR professionals agree that they need feedback, but they do not gather and provide it during the onboarding period. Of course, most HR partners ask the typical questions like, "How are things going?" or "Do you have everything you need?" or "Do you have any questions that I can answer?" The new leaders typically respond with "Great!", "Yes, everything is coming together." and "I will let you know if I have any questions. Thanks."

This type of surface exchange does not give the HR partner the information that he/she needs to understand how the new leader is really doing. Nor does it give the new leader a real opportunity to ask for specific help.

Often, the new leader does not receive structured feedback until a 360 process is offered--usually around the 12-month mark. This is TOO late and does not provide the leader with feedback about how he/she is fitting into the culture of the organization or managing his/her onboarding process.

We have identified a set of key indicators that predict a new leader's onboarding success. If you gather feedback from the new leader's key stakeholders: the boss, direct reports, peers, the HR partner and him/herself around these key indicators, the new leader has a "snap-shot" of how his/her network views those ever-critical early behaviors in a new role.

How early? We recommend gathering this feedback at about 45 to 60 days, then again at 90 to 120 days. This feedback is invaluable and allows the new leader to understand what he/she should--
--stop doing
--start doing
--change
to successfully onboard and integrate into the role and organization.

The easiest way to gather and analyze this data is by using web-based tool that provides anonimity for the stakeholders and gives qualitative and quantitative feedback. The Return on Investment for this type of exercise is almost immediate and highly impactful.

Leaders can actually do something about their behaviors before it's too late.

How Long Will Obama's Onboarding Honeymoon Last?

I was having a conversation about the impending inauguration (who isn't, right?) and the question came up, "Just how long do you think that Obama will have for his onboarding honeymoon period?" Typically, new US presidents are given the 100-day grace time to get up-to-speed on the pressing issues, make staffing appointments, get briefed on national security and figure out what needs attention and its priority.



Well, things aren't typical these days, as we all know. President-elect Obama has appropriately been managing expectations since he won the election, but as he continues to learn the current state of our country's affairs, he could still be suprised.



How much time will the American people give him to deliver some sort of results? How will his team come together and work toward common goals? What circumstances will present themselves that will test his resolve and/or his decision-making ability?



These are all yet to be seen, but one thing is pretty clear--Obama's first 100 days probably started on November 5, 2208, not January 21, 2009.

What about your organization? How long is a new leader "new"? How long is he or she given to listen and learn before being expected to deliver? And probably more, importantly, how is the organization supporting those individuals during this time?

No one will understand this better than our new president--how important that support can be. Let's all hope that his support is in place and he has the tools to make the right decisions at the right time for our country.

Leadership Onboarding in 2009

What's ahead for leadership onboarding in 2009? With all the dreary economic news, it seems that organizations will typically cut discretionary spending and focus their time and money on what will successfully drive their businesses into the next year and beyond.

A survey that I just read today, published by the International Association for Human Resources Information Management (IHRIM) reports how human resource leaders said that they would spend their information technology dollars next year. The findings say that of the companies making investments in software, 12% will be spent on core HR management systems, 25% will be spent on benefits management solutions and the most will be spent on onboarding tools at 28%.

This result indicates that more and more HR leaders are recognizing the business need and competitive advantage to providing a formal onboarding process. How many of these will have a dedicated focus to leaders is unclear. But the numbers are encouraging.

The article goes on to report that there is still an indication that companies will continue to cut budgets and staff in the slumping economy. These cuts will probably include development-like programs such as leadership coaching, team development and leadership onboarding. I was at a conference this fall and a key-note speaker from Home Depot said the their leadership onboarding was "suspended indefinitely" to save cost as their sales declined.

Unfortunately, this is a big mistake. Top talent will go to companies with these types of programs and organizations risk losing their competitive edge.

Now, more than ever, is the time to protect your biggest investments, your leaders.

Read the full article about the survey

Can't Afford Not to Do Leadership Onboarding

The talking heads on CNN and Fox News are telling us to "Hang on, it's going to get worse." The economy, that is, by way of tightened credit markets, crumbling financial institutions, big lay-offs and shaky consumer confidence. It is the typical reaction to hunker down, not spend any money and "wait and see" what happens next.

That might work for individuals and families, but not organizations who have to figure out how to keep and grow their competitive edge. Strong leadership is needed now more then ever and organizations are still paying big bucks to get it.

So, if your organization has sunk several thousand dollars into recruiting, interviewing, assessing and relocating a key leader, why would you leave their onboarding up to chance? Wouldn't you think that a small additional investment of time and money to insure that he or she "sticks" and does what he or she was brought in to do would be worth it?

We are continually surprised that operational and human resources leaders will agree that a leadership onboarding process "makes sense" or is "nice to have" but not a necessity. We beg to differ. Statistics in study after study prove that failure rate of newly hired or promoted leaders is in the 40 to 60% range.

The platform is on fire! Look down!

HR Tech Show and Leadership Onboarding

Connect the Dots participated in the HR Tech Show that was held in Chicago last week. It was great to talk with several HR professionals that understand the need to provide onboarding support to new leaders! At the same time it is surprising to learn that many organizations are not providing the support they know new leaders need.

The business case for leadership onboarding speaks for itself:

• enables new leaders to "hit the ground running"
• allows for faster recruitment ROI
• provides platform for building relationships with key stakeholders
• increases engagement early on

It can be easy to over-complicate the leadership onboarding process. A successful leadership onboarding approach is based on three key elements:

1. provide the right knowledge at the right time
2. identify key stakeholders with which the new leader needs to build relationships
3. give timely and actionable feedback

So don't over-think it--get started!!