Do you challenge your high performer(s) ?

The other day, my son’s teacher mentioned that GATE (Gifted and Talented) students tend to perform better when they are challenged. When a child is a high-performer, the teacher must set the bar high. In fact, a challenging environment boosts their energy to excel further.

How interesting.

I realize that the same is true in our work environment. If you have a highly productive team, you tend to set high expectations for them. Each time, they amaze you with their dedication and commitment; they build your trust and confidence.  That trust, inspires you to challenge them more to the benefit of the whole team. 
 

In a typical work environment, we tend to focus on how to motivate people, and often overlook how to challenge a high performing team so that they don’t lose steam.
While, managers usually feel fortunate to have high performing talents (so that they can get the tasks done easily), they tend to forget the fact that with great gifts come great responsibility.  Managers need to continue to set the bar high, and be ready to reward achievement.   As a middle manager, with little in the way of monetary budget, intrinsic motivations are even more important.

 I strongly feel, as a leader, it is our responsibility to focus on our high performers and set challenging environments for them to thrive and excel.

Keep blogging!

There are many good reasons why people blog.

If it is an internal blog it will promote knowledge sharing within your organization and help your organization perform better.

If it is an external blog you will promote your own organization and help other people understand and appreciate what you do.

It is one of the pieces in the puzzle of building your own brand as described in Ravi’s posting.

You get feedback from people on a topic you find interesting. So you are not only giving information but also receiving new perspectives on a topic that interest you.

It gives you a good feeling in your stomach and a boost for your self confidence knowing that you write something others are interested in reading.

And in general: If you have some piece of information you think others could benefit from – why not share it?

All these reasons – and probably a couple I’ve forgot – was what got me starting posting to different blogs in the first place.
Having done this for some time now I have found all of the above to be true, but I have also found that blogging brings one benefit I didn’t expect…

I have experienced that blogging makes you think longer – and harder – about the topics you blog on.
Whenever you think about something new or see things in a new light you might say to yourself: “This might be a topic for a posting” and then something interesting happens:
You start organizing things in your head, you start thinking about headlines and keywords and all of a sudden you have organized and articulated the topic in a much better way than if you had not wanted to create a blog on the topic.
Knowing other people are going to read, think and respond to what you write makes you think longer, harder – and better – and that can never be a bad thing!

So don’t despair if you only have one reader for your posting – you will still benefit from creating it.

Just realized that if I had not been posting on this blog the brainwave I got the other day while I was out running: “why do people blog?” would have stayed just that  – a brainwave.

The Original Social Network

I had the privilege of attending Oracle Open World this year.  Though I have been with Oracle for almost 13 years, it was my first opportunity to attend the big annual customer conference, which is typically tightly restricted from employees due to space limitations.  It was only for a day, with an unexpected follow up invitation later in the week to the customer appreciation event.

Now, I have been to work-related conferences/conventions before.  I knew what to expect before arriving… crowds of people, all generally there for a combination of reasons: those attending to 1) learn something or see cool stuff, 2) meet old acquaintances or meet new ones, and/or 3) enjoy time away from work, party, and get free swag.

Notice I did not mention anything about the conference itself.  Nothing about the elaborate venues, the eye-catching props, the often lavish availability of food and drink.  And nothing about the sessions either.  (I do admit, however, that the conference location does matter.  Why else do conferences always get held in ‘fun’ places — eg. Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando, etc?)

The point is the thing I remember most about the conferences I have been to is the connection I made with people.  It was not about the pomp and circumstance of the occasions (though admittedly, some of my fondest memories are of the parties throughout the events), but about getting in touch with the people we work with and the people we build products for.  This was in the form of enjoying food and drink together, exploring the venue/location in which the conference was held, or even sharing hotel rooms to save company costs (when the conference was remote).

In my case this year, I was fortunate enough to get to meet some folks from Boston that I had been working with virtually for almost two years.  Not only did my team in the Bay Area, California get to co-present a session with these folks, we had the benefit of spending a lot of face time with them as well — over lunch, attending other sessions together, even happy hour.  What a great way to strengthen our relationship and get to know the people we worked with in a more personal setting.

Later that week, my wife (who works for a customer of Oracle) scored some hard-to-get tickets to the OOW customer appreciation event.  (The event was not open to the public — only to customers of Oracle, or people with connections to get tickets.)  What a party that was — I enjoyed live performances from The English Beat, Berlin, Don Henley, and The Black Eyed Peas.  Fortunately, the folks from Boston were also able to get tickets for the event, and we got to enjoy the event together.

Since the conference over a month ago, I have been in touch with the folks from Boston on several occasions.  I cannot say I would not have been in touch with them anyways due to our close dependency on each other for what we work on, but I will claim that the dynamics feel more personal than before we met, well, in person.

With all the social network hype pervading our lives today (heck, we even have a Hollywood movie about a particular social network), let us not undermine one of the original social networks — the work conference.  One might argue that work conferences are expensive, not green, etc.  However, we still work in a real world, where relationships are important.  Social networking and more traditional telecommunication mediums keep people in touch.  But, conferences make connections real.  Thank goodness we still have them.

Are you prepared to work for your peer?

I have been in management long enough to have seen a common story play out several times, it goes something like this.

There is a strong team.  Each has their own unique strengths, but overall they all do good work.

The leader departs

and someone has to be given the lead role.   Multiple people want to be considered, some are more qualified than others.  Each think they are the most qualified.

One is chosen.  The rest are pissed.

The most common next outcome is that eventually everyone gets over it and moves on.

BUT

No one forgets.

Especially the person who was picked to be the leader.  That person went from having a peer they could trust, to feeling like the need to watch their back.

So I ask you..

at what point did the person who was not picked really lose something?

I would offer to you, that the real loss was not the missed opportunity but the future opportunities that were also lost.  Instead of focusing energy to cement a future promotion, they showed everyone that they were a sore loser.

When you find yourself not chosen, remember that you are being watched.  And in that moment you can show the best or the worst of your authentic self.  While you cannot control the outcome of every opportunity, you can certainly stop the opportunity flow by making bad choices.

Don’t let this happen to you.  Be the master of your own career and decide that while you cannot control every career outcome, you can control your energy and your attitude.

A bad attitude is never career enhancing – avoid that at all costs.

Real successes are invisible

Does your TV have colors? Of course.
But is it a “color TV”? – No, it’s just a TV. Today it is not even a flat panel TV, it’s just a TV.

What does this tells us?
If a product or feature becomes really successful it is taken for granted. No one talks about it, and if you didn’t know better you would think it had disappeared.
But our TV is flat and colorful, our toaster has a timer and the temperature in the living room is constant – without anybody mentioning it.

Some of us have been working with e-learning for a long time.
We always knew it worked, but it was still encouraging back then to hear the CEO of Cisco say that “e-learning would become more important than the Internet”.
Today no one talks about e-learning anymore. Does this means that e-learning has failed?
No, it means that e-learning has become so common that we don’t mention it anymore – we take it for granted.

 In her blog Karen O’Leonard (Bersin) gives some figures on the use of e-learning.
In 2009 33% of all training was taken on-line.
Let me just repeat this: 1 in 3 hours of corporate training was e-learning in 2009!

 Is this then as big as the Internet? – no, but if you had told people 10 years ago that 33% of corporate training hours would be e-learning in 2009, they would have thought you were crazy – or working in the industry

 So where is e-learning headed now?
Due to the cost effective nature and flexibility of the concept I’m sure we are heading towards at least 50% of all corporate training being done online.

 Everybody is talking about how social media can enhance training and learning.
I will explore this – and why gaming will never be a major factor in learning – in a couple of upcoming postings.

Hear Gretchen Alarcon on the Bill Kutik Radio Show ®

 

 

 

 

Make sure to take a moment to hear Gretchen and Bill talk about Fusion HCM in the context of four important and timely topics in the Enterprise HCM space. It is definitely worth your time to hear what’s being asked in this unedited and unrehearsed conversation.

As expected, Bill pulls no punches, but Gretchen holds her own and the volley back and forth is both enjoyable to listen to as well as informative and thought-provoking. This is right on the heals of their well-attended (almost 400 people) interview and Gretchen’s demo of Fusion HCM at HR Technology 2010 ®, but this talk covers entirely new ground.

In the first segment, Bill basically pitches the same question to Gretchen that he posed to Jim Holincheck and Jason Averbook at the Great HCM Debate at HR Technology 2010 ®. That is, what is Strategic HCM and what are the challenges facing companies in realizing its benefits?

Next, Bill asks Gretchen another big question on everyone’s mind these days and a source of great controversy and opinion-bait. That is, what is the future of HR service delivery and in particular, where and how does SaaS fit into it?

After that, Bill takes a hard position about what’s the real deal on workforce analytics and planning and what will it take to address the challenges for adoption?

Finally, Bill refers back to his article from September about the integration of social software by vendors into their applications and asks if it marks a new era in enterprise software.

What were Gretchen’s responses? Well, they were great (and practical and actionable), but you’ll want to hear for yourself, so check out the talk!

Photos from the Bill Kutik Radio Show ®

Super Hero Talent Profiles

Iron Man 2 released on DVD last week.

I remember watching a scene from this movie where Happy Hogan is teaching Tony Stark’s candidate for new assistant (Scarlett Johansson) some kickboxing moves and Stark while watching, flips through her talent profile, noting that she is highly qualified and can speaking multiple languages including French, Italian, Russian and Latin.

As if we needed further endorsement for the need of a comprehensive talent profile for ourselves! Even superheroes need to showcase their awesome talent, lest their skills be underestimated.

So for those of you who think that talent profiles are just for HR, think again. You may be a great job fit for a position you covet, but do not show up on anyone’s radar because your skills do not reflect in your talent profile. So update your profile to advertise your job skills and reap the benefits of professional growth and work in your dream super-job, quite possibly one that may some day require a commute in an iron suit.