Grossman cites, “In 2010, the Corporate Leadership Council surveyed 880 high-potential employees.  More than 25 percent said they planned to change jobs within the next 12 months.  Among the dissatisfied, 64 percent said their current employment experiences are having little impact on their development.  Engagement levels, measured by assessing levels of passion and discretionary effort, declined 30 percent from 2009 to 2010.  From employers’ perspective, the performance of those who are sticking around is similarly troubling.  More than half of the executives surveyed said their organizations are ineffective at managing and retaining top talent.  They said 40 percent of internal job moves made by high-potentials end in failure and fewer than 15 percent of their direct reports are ready for immediate transition to subsequent roles.”

First, researchers see a huge divide between what employers think motivates high-potentials and what actually motivates them. Employers cite lists of what “we’ve given them,” including outstanding remuneration, to demonstrate the strengths of their programs. But attractive pay and benefits are on a high-potential’s ” ‘I’m given’ list, meaning he or she can replicate them elsewhere fairly easily,” says Roland Smith, lead researcher at the Center for Creative Leadership in Colorado Springs, Colo. “What they’re looking for instead are the things that truly differentiate employers. These include opportunities to more directly influence and direct their careers and more-challenging assignments with real risks and rewards.”

It often takes more than compensation, stock and options to retain people, says Raoul Buron, vice president and chief learning officer at Prudential Financial in Newark, N.J. “If I know my career is being managed, that I will be regularly reviewed and given options in choosing my next move, it makes a big difference,” he explains.

Second, high-potentials need smarts and experience to thrive, but ability and seasoning are only part of the recipe. “We know from our benchmarking studies that high-potentials don’t fail because they lack ability,” says Jean Martin, executive director of the Corporate Leadership Council. “Most don’t succeed because they are not engaged and because the assignment they’re in is not what they want.”

Grossman offers 14 strategies to engage and retain your high potential employees:

Tell them they’re special. Center for Creative Leadership research reveals that only about 40 percent of employers formally tell high-potentials of their status. A second study from the center suggests that those who fail to do so pay a steep price in attrition. Of the high-potentials who were not formally told of their status, 33 percent were looking for another job. Of the high-potentials who were told they were special, only 14 percent were looking.

Align individual and company needs during a consultative process. High-potentials want to be involved in planning their development, not dictated to. “It’s a continuous journey to match organization needs with personal aspirations,” says Lauris Woolford, executive vice president of organization development and planning at the Cincinnati bank.

Delegate real responsibility. Research shows that high-potentials thrive when they’re truly accountable for something. But employers are often reluctant to give them the reins. “When they get the more significant assignments, they’re being told what to do rather than being assigned to direct or co-direct,” Roland Smith says. “Within reason, you have to be prepared to let them make mistakes.”

Be flexible. Inflexible assignments, especially those that require relocation when people have young children and employed spouses, can be morale busters or worse. Finding creative solutions that respect lifestyle needs and still provide seasoning for advancement can differentiate an employer.

Show them they matter. The single biggest factor in retention is whether people feel valued, says Michael Critelli, current CEO of Dossia in Cambridge, Mass.  “I spent a lot of time in one-on-ones with people at all levels,” recalls Critelli, who has experience as an HR leader.  “Hug your high-potentials because if you don’t, someone else will,” Lauris Woolford advises. “Make them know that you would not want to run your business without them.”

Tap effective mentors. Who the mentor or coach is makes a difference. High-potentials want access to people in the hierarchy that they respect.  Finding leaders who can step into the mentoring role can be challenging. “C-suite executives are good at challenging people and assessing them, but not always as good at supporting them,” Roland Smith says. “They may find it hard to invest the relational time that people want.”

Foster visibility. Employers insist that substantive exposure to top decision-makers—not just face time with them—is essential. Boards of directors should “get out to remote facilities to see people in their native settings,” says Critelli.  “Boards should go somewhere away from headquarters at least once a year so members can see promising people below the top tier in action.”

Make learning and advancement seem never-ending.  By establishing talent or “acceleration” pools, employers can identify and isolate high-potentials for special treatment in the earlier phases of their careers without earmarking them for one particular job or position. Acceleration pools offer flexibility, guarantee more candidates for jobs that open up and enhance retention. In smaller organizations, HR leaders may find it more difficult to produce a steady stream of learning opportunities. One option: Encourage high-potentials to master skills and gain transferable experience outside of work.

Focus on developing the attributes leaders are bound to need. High-potentials know what they want from a development program. Keep their desires in balance with company objectives. “Target the competencies that will enhance your organization,” advises Sandi Edwards, senior vice president of AMA Enterprise.

Give managers assessment tools they need and will use for selection. Even with tools in place, talent management and succession planning often falter because managers do not have comprehensive systems for their high-potential programs. One area that suffers from lack of attention in many companies, for example, is the selection process.

Use a systems approach. A systems approach does not require sophisticated software. Yet creating a database of employees’ skills is only part of the process.  No matter how automated the system is, the idea is to control the whole process from profiling and employee feedback to standardizing, where possible, selection processes and criteria for judging performance.

Put assessment to the transparency test. Morale suffers when employees say the selection process is unfair or built around favoritism.

Part on friendly terms. Inevitably, some high-potentials will depart, making critics question the investment in talent now benefiting others.  Part on good terms, however. “We’re good at keeping someone in our plans even when they leave,” Prudential’s Buron says. “We’re always trolling in the market.  We may go back out and recruit that same person later.”

Get buy-in from top leaders. Unless leaders agree to the financial investment and make a personal commitment to the initiative, HR professionals’ efforts are destined to end in frustration.

Offer What You Can Afford.  Weigh carefully whether your company can afford to pay the total rewards that high-potentials want, given all other competing demands.

It is management’s responsibility to:

• Define the position’s worth to the organization.  Is this position really needed?  How will the outcomes contribute to the organization’s goals?  Forget this step, and the person performing the job will become a casualty of poor planning and lack of foresight.
• Define and communicate the performance objectives and accountabilities against which the person will be measured.  A person won’t measure up if they don’t know what they’re being measured against.  It is also necessary to provide timely feedback regarding performance.  If your new hire isn’t performing to your expectations, you need to constructively communicate that to them, coach them on how they can improve, and let them know what will happen if they don’t.  If they are performing to or even beyond your expectations, you should communicate that to them, too!  (Positive reinforcement works with adults, too.)
• Provide an environment in which people are permitted to prove their worth.  People can’t contribute if they’re not given the opportunity.  For example, are they invited to meetings where their input might be valuable?  Are you, as their manager, approachable and have an open-door policy so they can comfortably share their ideas?  The environment must also be one where management holds everyone, not just the new hire, accountable for their individual performance objectives.  Nothing de-motivates faster than being in an environment where your co-workers do the bare minimum to collect a paycheck and management doesn’t do anything about it.  Your new hire will quickly ask them self why they should care or take the initiative if no one else does.

When proving worth becomes a shared responsibility between employee and manager, it’s a win-win.  With a clear picture of what’s expected of them and working in an environment where they can contribute, your new hire will be in a position to show you what they’re made of.

It is this last category which provides many lessons for leaders and managers directing organizations that are transitioning from start-up to a mature company or to a company that has been acquired by a larger, corporate entity.  No matter what the situation, these transitions provide lessons that, if understood and addressed, can reduce turnover and maintain the solid performers needed for any company to be successful.

Start-ups are fun, exciting, and require a great deal of hard work.  The fun and exciting parts keep employees energized, engaged, and hard working.  I often say that employees in these start-ups will work into the wee hours of the morning for a fair salary, a pizza, and a six pack of beer.

However, as the start-up organizations mature, managers must realize so too do the employees.  Single employees get married and start raising families.  Bottom line – they now have additional responsibilities different from when they joined the start-up.  The time spent on the job now needs to be balanced with family responsibilities.

In the case of start-ups being acquired by large corporate entities, the environment often changes.  The once fast-moving, innovative, and fun environment is now laden with corporate rules, policies, politics, and slower decision-making.  Those entrepreneurial spirits find it difficult to operate under such bureaucracy.

Thus managers must understand and monitor these transitional changes in both people and organizations.  Managers must keep in touch with their subordinates and maintain relationships whereby candid and skillful discussions take place on a frequent basis.  These discussions should uncover and then demonstrate understanding for the transition individuals are facing.  Armed with this understanding, managers can work to address issues, make adjustments (work schedule, type of work, etc.) and hopefully maintain the solid performers who have made the start-up successful.

Trust is the glue that holds organizations and relationships together.  We all know how difficult it is to be in a personal relationship with someone we don’t trust, and it is just as difficult to work for someone we don’t trust.  In work relationships, leaders have a responsibility to build and maintain trust within their organizations.  Do your employees trust you?

Leaders engender and demonstrate trust by:

1. Being open and communicating important issues regarding the organization.  Allowing misinformation to circulate via the office grapevine is damaging to a leader’s credibility.
2. Providing assignments that stretch abilities, thereby showing faith in and a desire to develop future knowledge, skills, and abilities.
3. Actively listening to employees and being responsive to their needs.  Leaders may not always be able to fulfill all of their employees’ needs.  If you can’t, be honest about why you are unable to fulfill them.
4. Being ethical and showing integrity in all dealings with clients, colleagues, employees, and external stakeholders.
5. Involving people in meetings where their input and feedback is needed.
6. Being respectful in how you talk to and about people.
7. Supporting employees in the challenges they may be facing.
8. Maintaining confidentiality when circumstances require it.

What will you as a leader do to create trust within your organization?

QD x C x AE = R

 Quality of the Decision × Commitment to that decision × Ability to effectively Execute the decision = Results

Many managers make great decisions.  However, if those involved in implementing the decision have no commitment to it, your results will be zero.  Additionally, if your organization does not have the ability to effectively execute the decision because it lacks the resources, infrastructure, knowledge/skill, or teamwork to do so, your results will be zero. 

How do we ensure the QD, C, and AE give you the results your business requires?

1. Start with the decision:

• Ensure you have enough facts and the right facts on which to base your decision.
• Meet with your team and explain the what, why, how, when, and where of the decision.  Make sure you especially give them the why.  Obtain the team’s input.
• Discuss with your team the implications of the decision to internal and external customers, resources, the infrastructure, etc.  With your team’s help, determine the interrelationships you must consider, i.e. if we decide to divert resources to a specific project, how will that affect other projects underway?
• Think long-term.  Ask your team what they see as the long-term impact of the decision.

2.  Through discussion of the decision, analyze and manage commitment.  Utilize and apply the “Five Star Points of Integration” to determine who you must communicate with and whose commitment you must obtain to achieve a 6 – 10 rating on the “C” (Commitment).

3.  Assess your organization’s ability to effectively execute the decision within the timeframe and budget you envision.

The above three recommendations will do a great deal to achieve the Results you desire and your organization needs.

If you need assistance obtaining improved business results, contact Client First Associates. 

We will help you effectively manage the QD × C × AE = R.

Whatever is driving the need for transformational change, managers have a natural ten­dency to facilitate the needed change by modifying the organization’s mission, policies and procedures, and operating systems.  Other “visible” dimensions that managers attempt to change are employee behavior, decision-making, and organizational language (i.e. customers are #1, customer service is our business).

However, after months of hard work and effort, managers do not see the expected changes occurring.  They ask why.  The answer is because managers have failed to real­ize that the “Invisible Drives the Visible”.  Management does not always see or under­stand that “invisible forces” like culture, values, thinking patterns, attitudes, paradigms, beliefs, and norms drive what people think and do.  If the visible changes contradict the invisible forces, the required changes will not take place.

The main point – you can’t make visible changes in an organization without first chang­ing the invisible forces.

Client First Associates, Inc. knows how to change the invisible forces.  Give us a call for assistance in achieving the transformational change your organization must make to grow or survive.

I’m not suggesting that organizations capitulate to all of Gen Y’s sometimes naive and impractical demands.  But I am suggesting that organizations need to consider the fact that this new generation of workers has and will continue to necessitate changes in the way companies brand themselves, managers manage and motivate their employees, talent management strategies are executed, and workplace “norms” are observed and followed.

Is your organization providing:

• Management face time to offer recognition and constructive feedback?
• Opportunities for growth, development, and upward mobility?
• Interesting and challenging work?
• Coaches and mentors?
• Open, transparent, real-time communication?
• Flexible work schedules?
• A collaborative work environment and a social atmosphere?
• Competitive salaries, benefits, and non-traditional reward systems?
• Gadgetry worthy of a tech-savvy generation?
• Diversity in race, sex, religion, age, and ideas?

Since I’ve recently had the opportunity to work with a talented few of them, I can attest that Gen Y is indeed passionate, hungry for experience and opportunity, wise to the ways of technology and social media, and brings a fresh perspective to the table.  While widespread Gen Y-friendly changes may not be feasible for all organizations, it is strategically worth our while to make the changes that are of chief importance to Gen Y, and which will attract and retain our next generation of workers.

And once we’ve come to grips with the reality that Gen Y is, in fact, our future, Generation Z will be knocking on our office doors.

But what if there is an obstruction in the flow of communication?

Again, think of your digestive system and the pain and discomfort a blockage can cause.  An organization can suffer similar pain and subsequent damage.

Imagine the consequences of the following:

• Execution of a radical sales and marketing plan has begun and senior management expects double digit growth, but no one bothered to involve operations.  Are they prepared?
• An employee consistently finds out through the office grapevine how her workload is going to change as a result of new business developments.  Her manager never informs her himself, asks her for her input, or even inquires into her workload capacity.  How long will she stick around?
• Performance expectations are set, but aren’t communicated to jobholders.  Can they perform their job up to par if they don’t know what is expected of them?

Despite the myriad avenues of communication we have at our disposal these days, there continues to be a startling lack of clear, effective, open communication.  Is it fear?  Is it a perceived need for secrecy?   Is it an inability to communicate?  Whatever the reason, communication (up and down, horizontally, cross-functionally) is crucial to the success of every organization.

When communicating at work, considering using the “5 Star Points of Integration”:

• Whose work do I affect?
• Who should I involve?
• Who should I tell?
• Whose approval do I need?
• With whom must I collaborate in planning?

If your organization continues to struggle with effective communication, contact us – we can help you get regular!

Contact us today!

However, some senior management teams are becoming so involved in day-to-day operations that their actions are having a negative effect on revenues, growth, profitability, and morale.  They go out on the floor, see one thing go wrong, make decisions and give orders without knowing the big picture and considering the positions of subordinates.  Often, subordinate managers have seen the problems and put in action processes to correct them.  When orders given by senior managers conflict with the processes set by subordinate managers, mixed messages are sent to employees, the subordinate manager’s authority is subverted, employees are confused, morale suffers, productivity is sapped, and the bottom line suffers.

Senior managers need to delegate responsibility to subordinate managers, discuss performance and business results with them, and support their efforts.  If business results decline, hold subordinate managers accountable without countermanding their efforts in front of front-line employees.

Most managers care about employees but don’t take the time or the initiative to understand employees’ challenges, organizational barriers to success, needs, and goals.  Other managers could care less about employees and consequently have no perspective on employees’ needs, challenges, etc.

Are your management paradigms:

1. Excluding employees from being involved in meetings where their presence, input, and feedback would make positive contributions to the organization?
2. Keeping you from proactively communicating with employees on decisions, actions, and initiatives that impact them?

Engaging employees begins with the hiring process.  Are your personal and management paradigms:

1. Ensuring development of hiring profiles that consider culture, the working environment, technical skills, and the psychological contract between employer and employee?
2. Ensuring you professionally interview employees versus talk more than ask questions, and create an environment that emulates the organization hiring the employee?
3. Developing an effective on-boarding/orientation process that truly engages employees and gives them a base for being successful in the future?

When things don’t go right and employees appear disengaged and uncaring about the business, or are struggling to fulfill their job responsibilities and appear in management’s eyes as non-performing, ask yourself the question:  As a manager, what have I done or not done to contribute to this situation?  You may be surprised by the answer.

If you have any questions about how Client First Associates may be able to assist you with your business’ needs feel free to contact us.