HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Social Intelligence (book)

Competencies: interpersonal skills, oral communication, conflict management, building strategic relationships, interpersonal sensitivity, self-development, stress tolerance, engenders trust, team building (to a lesser degree)

Who benefits: anyone seeking to improve their abilities to interact more effectively with others

Consultant Usage: especially useful to those doing work related to emotional intelligence or multiple intelligences, good background material for all HRD professionals, coaching

What’s it about? The EI guy is back to introduce us to a related, but new field within the social sciences. In the shortest possible description of the book, it is about the social brain and our social aptitude in acting wisely in interactions with others. 

Daniel Goleman describes an emerging science called social neuroscience, the science of neural mechanics at work (a set of circuitry that is activated as people interact).  As a body of work it apparently has existed about 15 years and is still considered in its infancy.

Social neuroscience describes brain-to-brain linkups as we engage with another person.  It is the process of how we connect with others. 

He views this book as a different focus that Emotional Intelligence. EI is about us as individuals and what goes on inside of us, a one-person psychology.  SI (dare I call it that?) is two-person psychology, what happens when we connect with another person.  He summarizes EI as self-awareness and self-management.  He summarizes SI as social awareness and social facility (relationship management).

He explains how emotions and moods get transferred from one person to another.  It triggered a memory for me of my friend Terry Paulson who speaks and writes about two kinds of people in this world: “Energy Boosters” and “Energy Sappers”.  Terry’s advice: Seek out the Energy Boosters and don’t worry, the Energy Sappers will find you!”  Terry, if you are reading this, social neuroscience describes exactly why your advice works!!!

One of my favorite quotes from the book is from Edward Thorndike, a Columbia University psychologist who first coined the term social intelligence: “Social intelligence shows itself abundantly in the nursery, on the playground, in barracks and factories and salesrooms, but it eludes the formal standardized conditions of the testing laboratory.”  (The quote kind of reminds me of the Supreme Court Justice who said he couldn’t define it but knew it when he saw it!)

Yet true.  Those of us who have followed the development of multiple intelligences know so well how much more difficult it is to measure intelligences other than “IQ”.

There are two important considerations in deciding to read this book.  First, and most obvious is that the book is half descriptive science and half story telling with analysis.  And I will admit that I read mostly the stories and skipped much of the science…but that is how I am wired.

Second, he is clear that this a book about a new area and that much of what you read may change with new research.  Like Emotional Intelligence was just the descriptive beginning of tidal wave of related ideas and practical application, this book too is the beginning, with the middle and endings still to come. 

A final footnote I can’t resist: He has a chapter entitled “The Neuroanatomy of a Kiss”.  It is a detailed description of what actually occurs.  I have never seen a kiss described before as (in part) “…to execute a face-to-face interaction, the far-flung networks of the social brain create a common neural conduit.”  I hope I never read that description again.  Talk about taking the fun out of something….

Technorati Tags: social intelligence, social neuroscience,   social brain, emotional intelligence, IQ, EQ, SI, social awareness, social facility, relationship management, terry paulson, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber”

Plato

Getting ahead and getting along in organizations requires that you play some politics with leaders, colleagues and others.

Does your approach to playing politics “fit” the corporate culture you are in?  Do you have any conflict between the political style you have to use and the one you really would prefer to use in your organization?  Is your political style orientation one that will help you in your career within your current (or future) organization?

These are questions that seem to come up in my executive coaching assignments all the time.

Individuals view organizational politics and pursue self-interests very differently.  Political “style” consists can be described as the combination of two related behaviors: 1) Impression Management (the tendency of an individual to take credit and market one’s accomplishments versus the tendency to share credit and market the accomplishments of others) and 2) Conflict Management (the tendency of an individual to pursue one’s own self-interests versus the tendency of an individual to allow others to have his/her own way). 

I’d like to describe four different Political Style Orientations based on approaches to impression management and conflict management within organizations.  These political style orientations should serve as a useful framework to better understand and discuss political behavior within organizations.

As you read each orientation, ask yourself two questions: 1) What style is most characteristic of the one I am currently using in my organization and 2) Which style would I really prefer to use?

UNDERSTANDING THE FOUR POLITICAL STYLE ORIENTATIONS

PROMOTER: With respect to impression management, this political style orientation can be described as taking credit for and marketing one’s accomplishments more frequently than giving credit for and marketing the accomplishments of other team members within the organization.  With respect to conflict management, these individuals demonstrate a greater tendency to seek one’s own way, rather than, allowing others to have their way. 

Individuals with this political style typically seek a more competitive “win-lose” approach to effectively manage conflict and differences with others. These individuals tend to be tenacious and competitive in pursuit of individual, professional, career and organizational goals and objectives.

STRATEGIST:  With respect to impression management, this political style orientation can be described as taking credit for and marketing one’s accomplishments and giving credit to other team members within the organization both to an equally high extent. With respect to conflict management, these individuals demonstrate an equally strong tendency to want their own way and allow others to have their own way.

Individuals with this political style typically seek a collaborative “win-win” approach to effectively manage conflict and differences with others. These individuals strategically plan and orchestrate their career through initiating important organizational, professional and social relationships and developing critical skills, knowledge and abilities that are highly valued by the organization.

TEAM PLAYER:  With respect to impression management, this political style orientation can be described as taking credit for and marketing the accomplishments of other team members more frequently than a tendency to take credit for and marketing of one’s own accomplishments within the organization. With respect to conflict management, these individuals demonstrate a greater tendency to allow others to have their own way, rather than, having their own way. 

Individuals with this style typically seek to compromise, or even accommodate, to effectively manage conflict and differences with others. This political orientation is common among individuals who are strongly motivated by their dedication and commitment to the overall goals and objectives of their team, group or organization. 

INDEPENDENT PLAYER:  With respect to impression management, this political style orientation can be described as infrequently selling or marketing one’s accomplishments or those of others within the organization. With respect to conflict management, these individuals are not inclined to strongly seek their own way or necessarily allow others to have their own way.

Individuals with this style typically seek to avoid interpersonal confrontation, minimize escalation of interpersonal tensions and postpone dealing with threatening situations to effectively manage conflict and differences with others.  These individuals typically rely on their demonstrated expertise, competence and proven accomplishments as their political base of power and influence within the organization.  Their political philosophy might be characterized on focusing on doing high quality work, allowing expertise to “sell itself” and minimizing playing organizational politics and “games” with others.

In our analysis and research of career orientations we often find that it is not uncommon to see a “gap” between one’s current political style and a preferred style.  Too, often this suggests that an individual is playing a political game that is draining and stressful.  To be truly engaged and satisfied at work, we must align our political style orientation with the right corporate culture or we may experience an increased risk of job burnout.

As Groucho Marx once said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies”…..Be well….

Technorati Tags: emotional politics, politcal style, impression management, conflict resolution, leadership, interpersonal style, self-promotion, Envisia Learning, promoter, strategist, team player, independent player, organizational politics, fairness, organizational justice, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

Competencies: time management, stress management, stress tolerance, adaptability, achievement orientation, self-control, psychological well-being, cognitive hardiness, emotional fitness, physical well-being, workplace health and safety

Who benefits: anyone and everyone

Consultant Usage: self-development, coaching, training programs

What’s it about? Don’t bother reading this unless you have recently experienced physical, mental and/or emotional drainage from work…especially if it is from long hours at work. 

If, however, you have that run down feeling perhaps this article is for you.  It is all about how to increase your capacity to get things done through higher sustained energy levels. 

I am going to take the liberty of quoting a paragraph from the article since it seems to sum up the article effectively and will certain give you the information you need to decide whether to read it or not:

“The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource.  Energy is a different story.  Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit.  In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals – behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.”

The authors offer multiple techniques (they call rituals) for increasing your energy levels in each of the four areas listed in the above paragraph.  None of the techniques is particularly new or surprising, yet intuitively we know the authors are on to something that we should pay attention to.

These “rituals” do lead to some very high level gains including getting more work done in less time, feeling better about yourself, having more time for what is really important in your life and (personally, I love this one) sleeping better at night. 

In addition, the article offers a short assessment to determine where you are on the energy management scale.

Not everything in the article is positive.  The authors are clear that some of the rituals need the support – or at least the lack of opposition – from your organization and your colleagues.  But even without their support there are still daily activities you can do to boost your energy levels in a healthy way.

Should you want more than the article provides, the authors have a book on the topic with the rather lengthy title of The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.

So my recommendation is that if you are frustrated by long work hours or experiencing loss of energy or frequently feeling tired, check out either the article or the book… that is, if you have the time or the energy. 

Technorati Tags: time management, stress management, stress tolerance, adaptability, achievement orientation, self-control, psychological well-being, cognitive hardiness, emotional fitness, physical well-being, workplace health and safety, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (book, biography)

Competencies: leadership, conflict management, decision-making, team building, inter and intrapersonal skills

Who benefits: coaches, leadership and management consultants, instructors and teachers in business education, leadership education, management development, any manager, supervisor or employee who enjoys reading biographies

Consultant Usage: stories for use in training, education, team building and coaching leaders and managers

What’s it about? A biography by a Pulitzer Prize winning author of President Lincoln, with an emphasis on the difficult situations and decisions of his presidency. 

The silly season is upon us.  For 10 short months we will be inundated with some information, some data, but mostly spin and then asked to select a new President of the United States.  What you see is very likely not what you get!  So I guess it is appropriate to put my two cents in.

Next Monday is President’s Day.  I think that is when we take time to honor all Presidents.  I am not too sure what we honor in Tyler or Taylor, Harrison or Polk; but I am a big fan of Honest Abe. 

I wasn’t old enough to vote for Lincoln, but after a work life in HRD I am a fan of the way he brought people and ideas together even during the most difficult times…and lest we forget, he probably lived in more difficult times that we do.  He had to deal with a war next door. 

The man had E.Q.

He knew he had his own personal demons.  And he dealt with most of them without modern day psychology or drugs. 

He had great interpersonal skills, bringing together people of extreme views, practicing active listening before it was an official competency, gaining win-win situations whenever possible.

And he was still capable of making strong decisions when needed.  He was a great team builder without ever having gone to a single NTL Institute T-group.

If you are a fan of biographies and have the patience to wade through a very thick book, there are many, many gems in here for the HRD professional.

Happy President’s Day!

Technorati Tags: Lincoln, Abe Lincoln, honest Abe, Abraham Lincoln, conflict management, team building, interpersonal skills, intrapersonal skills, EQ, decision making, judgment, win-win, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“The real secret of magic lies in the performance” 

David Copperfield

Multi-rater or 360-degree feedback, was used by approximately 90% of Fortune 500 companies last year. Under ideal circumstances, 360-degree feedback should be used as an assessment for professional development, rather than, evaluation¹.

Unfortunately, not all circumstances are ideal. 

Although popular, there are a number of “inside secrets” that most publishers and vendors won’t tell you about these potentially useful and dangerous assessments. 

OK, in full disclosure our company also develops and distributes a wide variety of validated off-the-shelf 360 assessments and has a proprietary engine for creating customized 360 solutions. So, why would I share these with you? 
Simply because I care more about having 360-feedback done following “Best Practices” and trying not to do harm².

Secret #1  Lack of Theoretical Grounding

Most vendors are reluctant to tell you too much about the theoretical models behind their 360 tools because in many cases there aren’t any!  For every vendor who does have a 360 assessment on the market with some competency model that is grounded in theory and research, another offers one that lacks any grounding at all.  Ever wonder why all the competency models look the same for a particular job family? 

Secret #2 Lack of Published Psychometric Properties

Our company has an automated online system to accommodate customized 360 feedback questionnaires that includes email administration, scoring, and reporting.  I can’t tell you how many times I put on my “vendor cap” and look the other way when these poorly designed questionnaire come into our hands from a company or consultant asking to utilize our “engine” for creating an online assessment.  I can’t tell you how many times we have seen questions that don’t match the response scale, are written in a way that are difficult to discern what is being measured or have several questions in one.  And we wonder why there is limited evidence about the impact of 360 feedback on actual behavior change!

I don’t think we have had a single customized 360 project from a company, coach or consultant where any real statistical analysis has ever been done on the questionnaire to ensure that it has even adequate psychometric properties (e.g., internal consistency reliability, test re-test reliability, factor analysis).  Honestly, we look the other way unless we have been contracted to provide consultation on the actual design of the 360 assessment.

Secret #3 Average Scores Can Be Easy to Misinterpret

Most vendors use average scores of raters in their summary reports.  For example it’s not uncommon to report a table summarizing the “most frequent” and “least frequent” behaviors perceived by the different rater groups.  These top/bottom “Letterman lists” are derived by simple average score calculations.  If all raters are essentially in agreement with each other the average score is a pretty good metric. 

However, quite a bit of research on 360 degree feedback suggests that we should expect diversity in ratings both within and between rater groups.  The more dispersion, the more confusing average scores are in feedback reports.  As my friend and CEO of Personal Strengths Publishing Tim Scudder says, “If my head in a hot oven and my feet are in cold snow, on average, I am feeling pretty comfortable.” 

Average scores can be potentially misleading, particularly when behavior changes are being attemtped based on the results of 360 feedback reports.  As a vendor we offer at least three different ways within each of our feedback reports to determine “rater agreement” and to offer some insight about ways to interpret and use average score summaries. I wish more vendors would do the same.

Secret #4  Most Competencies Within 360 Assessments are Highly Intercorrelated
Most vendors offer multi-rater tools that posit measuring specific competencies in different domains (e.g., communication, interpersonal, leadership).  What most vendors will never tell you is that most competencies are very highly correlated with each other (assuming they have done the research to discover this!).  What this means is that greater attention should probably be given to the “big picture” of feedback reports — what rater differences exist and what are the themes that come out of the feedback.  Sorry about having to share with all of you that are doing coaching with 360 feedback assessments!

Secret #5  Normative Scoring Can Be Confusing to Intepret

The use of norms can indeed be confusing to respondents trying to interpret their 360 results. A lot of vendors are pretty impressed with their industy, job level and international norms and offer them as real selling points in the sale of their 360 tools. How was the normative group defined and how many are in it?  How truly representative are they (even within a company) of the respondents.

At the end of the day, relative scores comparing self-views to those of others providing feedback are really most useful and important for behavior change.

Secret #6  Vendor Reports are Typically Static but Learning Styles are Diverse

Most vendors have put a lot of money into the programming to create nifty looking feedback reports.  Most don’t have much flexibility in the report itself.  For example, how many vendors do you know that offer a choice between line or bar graphs or average score interpretations versus normative score interpretations?  Well, not many.  Unfortunately, respondent learning styles and preferences for how to read, interpret and understand reports are more diverse than what most vendors will acknowledge. 
Well, there you have it.  Secrets from a vendor about other vendors and what none will dare to tell you about 360 feedback assessment! However, now that you know these, I’d like to share one last secret.

What matters most about muti-rater feedback is the process and not the tool. 

Do it right or don’t do it at all…..Be well….

Technorati Tags: emotional intelligence, multi-rater feedback, 360 degree feedback, peer ratings, norms, self-ratings, feedback interventions, Envisia Learning, Envisia kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Tornow, W., London, M. (1998). Maximizing the value of 360-degree feedback. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc. [↩]
2. Nowack, K. (1999). 360 Degree feedback. In DG Langdon, KS Whiteside, & MM McKenna (Eds.), Intervention: 50 Performance Technology Tools, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, Inc., pp.34-46. [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER 

Title: Managing Your Boss (article)

Competencies: influence skills, negotiation skills, communication skills, building strategic relationships, building trust, adaptability

Who benefits: all employees

Consultant Usage: training, coaching

What’s it about?  Greetings from Zihuatanejo, Mexico.  I am in my Mexican office: a folding chair with log footstool in a small corner of a sandy beach under a palm tree with the surf 150 feet away.  The temperature is in the mid-80s. There is a very light breeze.  I have no worries, no cares, and especially…No Boss.

Bosses can sometimes just really get in the way of fun.  Some can actually get in the way of work.  Fortunately I have a great boss who understands the importance of work-life balance: Me!  Me gave me a 38-day balmy assignment, with a workload of approximately 10 minutes a day.

But what about all those other people out there who don’t have such a wonderful boss?  Well if there is one thing I learned in a career in HRD, it is the importance of Boss Management.  None of us can be truly effective unless we have the cooperation and support of the boss.

Most of the literature and other forms of learning stress how the Boss should manage her or his reports.  Not much out there on how to manage upward.

As an example of the need to manage upward, I have spent a lot of coaching time with people who have a boss who micro manages.  Some of you are smiling at this moment and thinking, “ain’t that the truth” or something worse that can’t be printed here.

Well, before you take too many happy pills, here is the down side: Folks, there are lot of you out there who need to be micro managed.  So step one is to look in the mirror.  Am I doing some things (or many things) that cause my Boss angst?  Good Boss Management starts with self and then works upward.  Do you voluntarily communicate regularly, in his/her style, to keep your Boss up-to-date?  Do you withhold valuable information?  Do you resist her/his every suggestion without fully understand The Boss’s position.  These are just starter questions.  There are many other ways to irritate the micro manager/Boss.

Once you are satisfied with the person you see in the mirror, then there are many strategies to working with the micro manager.  One of my favorites comes from the martial arts: When pushed, pull.  I once had a manager who constantly gave me work to do without thinking about what I was already doing.  His philosophy was “I don’t care how you do it, just do it.” 

My metaphor for this style of Boss Management was a bucket that was full, and every new assignment was overflow.  Arguing with him accomplished nothing.  I took the “pull” approach.  Bring it on Boss.  Give it all to me.  And I kept a list of what I was working on.  Each item had a rough time factor assigned to it.  I prioritized the list and made a point of showing him the list every time he popped in with (usually) a new assignment.  I would say, “Sure boss, I can do that – where on this list do you want me to put it.”  A couple of times he grumbled that he didn’t realize I was working on so many projects and tasks.  Over time he stopped coming by so often.  Gradually I got control of my work time.

If you are interested in learning more about Boss Management, there are some very good suggestions and a couple of good stories in the Managing Your Boss article from Harvard Business Review (an HBR Classic).  Check it out….and this just in: Just released this week is short book version with the same title, Managing Your Boss (the book).

Meanwhile I have to get back to work…working on my tan!  Thanks again Boss.

Technorati Tags: the boss, boss,   boss management, boss subordinate relationship, upward communication, micro manager, micro management, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“The only exercise some people get is jumping to conclusions, running down their friends, side-stepping responsibility, and pushing their luck!”

Author Unknown

Can Exercise Increase Your Intelligence?

Could those most fit also have the fittest brains?

Now armed with newer generation brain-scanning devices such as fMRI and more sophisticated biochemistry assays, researchers are building a case that exercise can make you smarter.  

It seems that every time you work out, your muscles send out chemicals that cross the brain barrier to stimulate the production of brain derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF.  It appears that BDNF is sort of “fertilizer” for neuroplasticity causing brain cells to branch out, join together and communicate with each other facilitating memory and cognitive processes.

Research by UCLA neuroscientist Dr. Fernando Gomez-Pinilla suggests that rather than neurons in our brain dying off as we get older, people who exercised regularly for 3 months seemed to stimulate BDNF levels in the body causing the sprouting of new neurons.  Further research seems to also support the idea that working out stimulates the growth of the frontal lobes of the brain often considered the “executive functioning areas” due to their role in decision-making, planning ahead and multi-tasking¹.

 An analysis of 18 longitudinal fitness-training research studies reveal that cognitive functioning is significantly improved regardless of the type with cardiovascular workouts.  The finding that exercise is a key for increasing BDNF levels in the hippocampus–an area vital for memory, problem solving and learning–has provided insight about the physiological mechanisms responsible for the effects of exercise on cognitive functioning. 

In recent research by Gomez-Pinilla, blocking BDNF actions abolishes the ability of exercise to facilitate learning and memory as well as interfering with building synaptic connections.  It would appear that exercise is vital for brain health and becoming smarter.

Exercise seems to have immediate, although transitory, effects.  It appears you can learn 20% faster immediately after working out as opposed to sitting in a meeting.  But like everything, you have to use it or lose it–one month of physical inactivity seems to actually cause shrinkage of neurons.

Not only might you actually be smarter if you exercise, there are a number of other desirable side-effects including:

• Physically inactive employees have 45% greater chance of developing heart disease
• Colon cancer is approximately 40% more likely to occur in those who are inactive
• HDL cholesterol (involved in reducing cardiovascular disease) increased an average of 4.6% with exercise
• Epidemiological research suggests that each of us can gain 2 hours of life expectancy for each hour of vigorous physical activity
• Women being treated for breast cancer who practice moderate exercise have 50% less recurrence and death than those inactive
• Depressed individuals who walk 180 minutes a week experience 30% more remissions than those who don’t work out
• People who aren’t physically active have approximately 60% greater risk of developing osteoporosis

If the 68.7% of people age 18 and older in the US who don’t exercise would begin to start working out regularly, we might actually increase the collective intelligence of our country….Be well….

1. Gomez Padiulla, F. (2007).  The influences of diet and exercise on mental health through hormesis.  Aging Research Reviews [↩]