Critical Success Factor

Many experts feel that even though every company is different, it is important for each to develop a succession plan that includes hiring from within, conducting a developmental opportunity or audition, providing a defined plan with time lines for anyone to assume a leadership responsibility, and disclosing the process or succession plan to the shareholders.

Most succession plans do not take into consideration that different environments require different leadership competencies or skills. If we narrow our development process than we may never have the right person ready to assume the leadership role in any company. Companies need to consider what most professional sports teams do as a major component for success and that is a strong bench. Most of you championship teams, whether it be in basketball, baseball, or even football have had a great bench or understudy for their key positions. Companies, like professional sports teams, must have a strong bench of candidates who can lead or “step up to the plate” under a variety of scenarios.

Many companies use different forms of people development processes. Some companies call them Leadership Academies or Institutes, and/or High Potential Candidate Schools. Despite the different names, the end result is the same: development of people toward a higher level. As a business owner, we need to provide a constant flow of internal talent but we also must be aware that when people don’t get the higher position, they do have a tendency to leave the organization so the funnel better continue to be adequately filled at all times.

It is also important for companies to deliver some kind of transparency to their shareholders, customers, and internal personnel. The ideal succession plan should minimize uncertainty, which isn’t a bad thing in this economic climate, and continue to promote the “real” culture of the company. The depth of the company’s disclosure should be predicated by the need at the time and situational circumstances.

Also, many experts believe that the succession plan must take into consideration the corporate culture to the extent that every company should have a corporate culture that transcends the exit of any leader or person. Most companies do not really know what they smell, taste, and feel like to their internal and external customers. The best way to determine the current culture and the culture employees want is to conduct an Organizational Needs Inventory (ONI) but most companies don’t do them.

So, succession planning is just a more formalized name that can be defined as a process to help companies develop their people to meet their future needs.

It certainly sounds like it is time for a Leadership Program…. Let’s go!

Innovative Leadership has all of the tools for your succession plan, including Leadership Development, Organizational Needs Inventory, Assessment Tools, and more. Please call us at 609-290-2830 to set up and appointment or contact us here

Your Most Valuable Resource

Human Resource Managers hopefully are putting into place strategies and programs designed to resolve some of the issues associated with the economic crisis and are looking for ways to reduce costs associated with their workforce. We are seeing layoffs, hiring freezes, delayed pay or merit raises, and reductions in benefit expenses as the key areas of attack.

Along with reducing personnel-related costs, other factors are being affected including employee morale, innovation, new product releases, inventory control, etc. These factors often hasten the departure of our high performers and reduce the customer service levels.

The leadership of your organization must realize that employee performance and productivity is the key to success and it will drive business performance. Many believe that by improving individual performance and productivity will allow the top performers to rise to the top and allow companies to weed out the poor or non-productive employees.
Focusing on developing people is a real need for any company that wants to retain and develop its high performers and sustain growth in these poor economic conditions.

Human resources managers must focus on aligning the people with the strategic development process of the business and allow people to stretch toward their potential. HR has to realize that they must view talent or their people as the strategic resource that help the company reach its goals. It is time that Human Resource Managers understand that all personnel must be trained to understand the Total Leader® Process. The future of any organization is with its most valuable resource, its people. The executive team members of all companies need to exhibit the leadership skills and competencies that will sustain their company’s growth for future years.

Isn’t it time for you to focus on your strengths and not the weaknesses of your company and its people. People Development processes can directly affect the performance of you company so do something now!

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Making of an Effective Manager Course

Business and Executive Coaching

What is Leadership?

• Leadership is being responsible.
• People expect more accountability and transparency from its leaders
• Leaders must be authentic and responsible
• Leaders must be inspire people to accept and implement company strategy
• Leaders consider how their decisions impact society as a whole
• Leaders need to show people how to act responsibly.
• Leaders should adopt missions and visions that espouse social themes and values
• Leaders must combine social responsibility with company goals to help intellectually stimulate others, engaging them in the company’s plan
• Leaders must allow employees to participate in the decision-making process
• Leaders must give employees flexibility by allowing them to choose how to get something done.
• Leadership welcomes being held accountable.
• Leaders empower themselves to get things done.
• Leaders must provide clarity with their workplace expectations
• Leaders must demonstrate why employees need to own any type of change initiative.
• Leaders must teach people how to learn.

5 Keys to Successful Talent Management

Recruiting for Stars not Duds

The old saying is that you get what you pay for. I feel that you get what you prepare for.
Recruiting top talent is a full time position that requires patience, tenacity, and practice. I like many others consider talent recruitment the skill that separates the good companies from the bad companies. You must hire right to get the right outcome. People plus process equals achievement and you can’t get the end results without the other. Here are five tips to help you recruit the “best”:

1. Anticipate the need – always be hunting for talent even when you have no job openings. We used to call it “anticipatory interviewing” and our management team made us interview two candidates a quarter when we had not available openings. The company wanted the Talent funnel full for the time when we needed to open the spigot.

2. Prepare for the Interview before you even schedule the candidates. Create an interviewing process that will work with every position in the company. Spend the time to create a Win-Win, No Lose hiring tool.

3. Use assessments to confirm the talent and start their development. Use assessments to measure what is needed in the position and allows benchmarking by position for future development and succession planning

4. Focus on your competitors and realize that most of the talent is employed and working for someone else. If you want specific skills, behaviors, and people with a positude, then make sure you look for them in all the right places. Use the five business card recruitment technique and then make sure you follow-up and stay in touch with your recruits.

5. Don’t hire the borderlines……if we are referring to our “gut feeling” or “flipping a coin” technique, then cross the candidate off the list and start with someone new.

Richard Hohmann is a management development consultant who has written articles for many national publications, participated in television forums, and has been asked to speak at many national meetings/conventions. His company, Innovative Leadership of the Delaware Valley, LLC is a performance improvement company that integrates leadership training, strategic organizational development and performance coaching with a variety of adult learning processes to make organizations more effective. He has worked collaboratively with many organizations to create Leadership Institutes and believes that employee engagement starts with your manager.

Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep

Many companies spend a great deal of time and energy focusing on the marketing conditions, planning their strategy to meet the highly competitive environment, preparing for those unforeseen external obstacles like fuel costs, economic recession, etc. only to fall quite short of their goals.

I have noticed the following pitfalls that companies fall in:

1. They streamline their management layers losing valuable and irreplaceable talent in the process.

2. They listen to the experts in their industry and the mass media without spending the majority of their time surveying their own customers to determine what their needs may be over the next twelve months.

3. They never tell the employee what their business strategy looks like therefore engagement goes out the window.

4. They eliminate the decision-making process when it comes to the financial resources needed to move forward, and

5. They focus internally at the cost-effectiveness of their operations and don’t focus on their sales and marketing efforts and appropriate ROI

The reason for the above pitfalls is primarily due to the fact that most companies do not have a Strategic Development Process in place that can help them through the “white water” and correct their course in a relatively short period of time opposed to changing the course entirely using up their precious response time.

Do any of those scenarios sound familiar?

We can help you focus on “What Matters Most” – the ways and the means to generate revenue, your people, the systems and processes that make a difference, and the financial expectations of your actions. In other words, we help you get results. The time is now to maximize your strategy and strengths.

For more information on our “What Matters Most” Process contact us.

Making of an Effective Manager Grads!

Innovative Leadership announces AllCare Medical’s graduating class from “The Making of an Effective Manager.” Ten managers from AllCare Medical completed an extensive nine course manager training program that focused on the skills and competencies needed to help them to reach their goals and to help them learn how to deal with people as a leader.

The Making of an Effective Manager course was facilitated by Richard and Ellen Hohmann. Innovative's unique training methods focus on the development of the individual with their organization to help improve performance and productivity. The process includes a variety of components to make better leaders and managers through application and action to improve skills in the areas of delegation, staff development, handling employee problems, decision making, program solving and motivation while improving time management and organization development.

The next Making of an Effective Manager course starts on April 15^th, 2009.
For more information call 609-390-2830 or visit www.ILDV.org

Pictured: From Left to Right

Front Row: Christian R, Janet S, Alicia L, Barry S, Rita H

Back Row: Dewayne G, Christine F, John A, Dewey H, Kristen N

March, Keeping to the Plan

It's March. Have you kept to your 2009 plan?

Use these 10 tips to stay on track or get back on track for your business or home.

• Determine a planning and administration system that works for you.
• Develop a budget for your business and your home
• Use Cash Flow as a key performance indicator for your activities
• Revisit your personal goals
• Provide the time for a Strategic Business Development Process
• Use your Professional Advisors to your advantage (Accountant, Lawyer, Business Consultant, Coach, Commercial Bank Representative, and Financial Advisor)
• Formulate metrics for your personal and business success and monitor them monthly.
• Maintain a positive attitude and be committed to change if the environment dictates
• Exercise and continue to pursue your recreational activities or hobby
• Focus on Responsibility, Accountability, and self-empowerment