HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Competency Development – Part III  

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: employees at all levels, those seeking to enter or reenter the workforce

Consultant Usage: reference material

What’s it about?  Today is the last post of the year.  If you make New Year’s Resolutions you are probably writing down a (short) list of things to work on in the new year.  Today’s posting is the last in a series of three looking at a semi-random list of common workplace competencies.  Somewhere in this series is bound to be a good book, article or audio for self improvement next year. 

Today’s competencies are mainly focused on personal skills.

Oral Communication – I like two books that are similar in approach and both deal with the more difficult end communicating with another person: Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High and Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most (yes, this is a repeat suggestion — fits two competencies quite well).

Oral Presentations – There are thousands of books out there to help you become a better speaker.  Many are just a matter of personal taste.  A new book that covers all the bases is 101 Ways to Captivate a Business Audience.  But to cover oral presentations we need something oral.  If you are presenting a relatively high level you might like the CD-Rom from Harvard: Communicating for Results.

Written Communication — If you are looking for the basics, The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Business Writing and Communication: Manage Your Writing would be a good bet.  My own personal favorite, while not covering everything, has some very good advice on selected topics: Harvard Business School Publishing Guide to Better Business Writing.

Listening– Active Listening: Improve Your Ability to Listen and Lead is a short and practical book written with managers and leaders in mind.  However, the information applies to anyone and the author’s credentials are outstanding.

Adaptability/Stress Tolerance – There are a variety of ways to address this combined competency, but personally I would start with The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters.  If you are in the mood for some time management to help organize your life, I recommend the unusual but effective book The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.

Self-Control – Hard not to fit this book in to a list of competencies: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change.

Self-Development – This final entry into this three part series on competencies is the broadest and most difficult to nail down.  Really, all of the suggestions so far are self-development.  But there is a need to focus on continuous personal improvement and so I conclude with recommending you start with Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance.

And there you have it – a three part series with 19 competencies and 29 recommendations and the New Year only two days away!

Happy Development!

Technorati Tags: competencies, work competencies, personal development, self development, self-control, oral communication, oral presentations, listening, active listening, listening skills, written communications, effective writing, business writing, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”

Peter Drucker

It’s fun to watch all the guide dog puppies in training get together each month for their training.  Some seem like “naturals” and you just get a sense they will go on to become successful guide dogs.  Others you can spot early are likely to be destined for a “career change” (sometimes you can be surprised as they mature though!) as their current performance is in need for immediate correction if they are going to succeed. 

With these puppies, what is required is Performance Improvement coaching.  The goal is simple–correct the current problem(s) contributing to poor overall performance on the job.

In this particular coaching model, the focus is on immediate and significant performance improvement of the employee.  These employees are often in the lower performing 10% that many companies look to eliminate by offering specific outplacement and severance packages. 

Such poorly performing and low potential employees can cripple morale, interfere with team functioning and take tremendous management time away from high performers.  Coaches who work with such employees typically have concrete and specific developmental action plans that support the efforts of management to “turn these employees around” and enhance current performance.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT COACHING (Low Performance/Low Interpersonal Competence)

Clients demonstrating generally low job performance and also being characterized as less likable or interpersonally difficult can best be helped by utilizing a Performance Improvement model of coaching.  These clients are often offered coaching as a last resort before outplacement by many organizations.  The use of outside coaching services should at least be questioned as these low performers typically show little return on investment for such interventions. 

Coaches approached by companies asking for help with such employees should carefully contract with the client system to clarify potential issues around assessment, confidentiality and the role of human resources in the coaching intervention.

 Often, organizations believe that offering coaching services to these chronically poor performers will help minimize any possible wrongful termination lawsuit that could develop.  This is another reason that coaches should carefully structure the intervention if they decide to proceed with this type of client and presenting issues.  It is easy for coaches to feel “pressured” by the client’s manager, or even human resources, for his/her candid “evaluation” about the suitability or “fit” of the client. 

Make sure that as a coach you don’t become a natural part of the progressive discipline process by simultaneously playing an evaluation and coaching role with the client system and client, respectively.  Too many non-experienced (and experienced) coaches have been tempted by these type of requests for help by an organization only to realize too late that the hidden agenda was not to truly the client but to gather additional information confirming that he/she was a poor fit.

Performance Improvement Coaching Strategies

• Diagnose if the performance deficit is due to lack of knowledge, skills or motivation
• Seek human resources consultation about documentation and your progressive discipline process
• Set concrete performance goals and expectations
• Seek ongoing feedback informally from internal customers and stakeholders about their performance
• Follow-up regularly with these individuals and “check in” to monitor and track their progress
• Reinforce and Reward Desired Behaviors

Only about 50% of the guide dog puppies in training actually make it to become a guide dog leader.  Some “wash out” during their training due to physical problems but the vast majority are just not a great “fit” with the stringent requirements to become a functioning guide dog. 

Organizations can save a lot of time, money and effort by identifying these individuals early on and looking for constructive ways to “vote them off the island.”  There really isn’t anything wrong to encourage them to move on to “shine” with a competitor of yours….Be well….

Technorati Tags: guide dogs, seeing eye dogs, Guide Dogs of America, leadership, executive coaching, performance, layoff, social support, mastery, expertise, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, Envisia Learning, deliberate practice

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Competency Development – Part II  

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: employees at all levels, those seeking to enter or reenter the workforce

Consultant Usage: reference material

What’s it about? Today I continue with the second part of a three part series devoted to suggesting workplace competencies and listing one or two of my all time references for that competency.  With the “teen” decade fast approaching, you may want to put one of these resources on your New Decade Development List:

Delegation – This is an easy choice. Any topic on delegation must begin with the classic Harvard Business Review article Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?  The link takes you to a 1999 edition with the original article and an update from Stephen Covey.

Conflict Management – Selection of a resource here is much more difficult because there are several book and audios that are world class in their content and organization.  But if I can only choose one, I go with Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most.  The content is specific in what to do and general to most situations.

Interpersonal Sensitivity/Empathy – It may come as no surprise to many of you that I insert the name of Daniel Goleman here.  What may surprise you is that I am suggesting Working with Emotional Intelligence instead of his blockbuster bestseller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.  I recommend this book because so many of you have already read his first book and this one has more practical application.

Team Building – This is a tough one because there are so many resources out there that are quite good.   I was raised and was a true believer in earlier editions of this book and this one is better so a strong recommendation goes to Team Building: Proven Strategies for Improving Team Performance.  An excellent alternative is the very recently updated Team Players and Teamwork, Completely Updated and Revised: New Strategies for Developing Successful Collaboration by team building guru Glenn Parker.  I might add that this book includes some much need material on cross-cultural teams.

Recognizing/Rewarding — 1.4 million buyers can’t all be wrong.  This is an easy read, just plain fun…and it works 1001 Ways to Reward Employees.

Coaching/ Employee Development – If you believe you get what you pay for, consider the 5th edition of FYI For Your Improvement.  It is expensive but worth it for individuals and their coaches.  It is 100% practical.  If you are a professional coach, you should already own it…or consider another profession.  If you are interested in coaching in a more general way, then 50 of the best coaches in the profession have some suggestions for you: The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching: 50 Top Executive Coaches Reveal Their Secrets.  And if you are supervisor just looking for some simple guidelines, try How to Be a Great Coach: 24 Lessons for Turning on the Productivity of Every Employee.

Political Leadership – There are some of you who move around in political arenas full of slippery slopes and derailment traps.  A long biography best digested over time is a great way to contemplate the politics in your organization: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

I will end this series next week just in time for the new decade.

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: delegation, conflict management, interpersonal sensitivity, empathy, team building, team dynamics, cross cultural teams, recognizing performance, rewarding performance, praising performance, coaching, coaching for performance, employee development, careers political leadership, William oncken, steven covey, daniel goleman, glenn parker, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.”

Lee Iacocca

Like people, there is a great diversity of “personality” and ability to learn in guide dogs.  Some guide dogs seem to be almost “robotic” in their competence but may not be as warm and lovable as others.  Others are very challenging to train but incredibly playful and loving–particularly those who undergo a career change and wind up in a loving family but can’t make the grade to actually become a guide dog.

We all know talent who get a lot done but how they go about doing it might be described as “cut throat”, overly competitive and lacking in core interpersonal warmth and empathy.  They get a lot done but can often leave “dead bodies” behind.  These type of individuals are often referred to as competent jerks.  Coaching these individuals is always a challenge because they will often throw up their accomplishments, achievements and “numbers” as metrics of “success.” 

Indeed, they often have a long history of very solid performance evaluations that make it difficult to constructively confront these individuals and reveal to them that they could be even more productive and successful if they further developed their social competence and interpersonal skills.

PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT COACHING (High Performance/Low Interpersonal Competence)

Talent demonstrating generally high job performance (i.e., they meet or exceed objective standards of performance) but characterized as less likable or interpersonally competent can best be helped by utilizing a Performance Enhancement model of coaching. 

These clients are at risk for potential “derailment” at some point in their career and might be described as “competent” but “difficult” to deal with.  As a result, others may find collaborating and interacting with these individuals quite challenging and actually attempt to avoid them when possible.

In this model, the focus of improvement is developing social, interpersonal and communication skills that seem to almost always describe the “difficult” part of the client.  Generally, coaches will utilize both personality/style and multi-rater feedback assessments (e.g., a focus on emotional intelligence) to help illuminate the interpersonal “blind spots” of the client.

Most coaching assignments will require a lengthier intervention to ensure that client’s fully understand how they are being experienced and perceived by others and the potentially negative impact of his/her leadership, communication and interpersonal style. 

Such clients are expected to be somewhat defensive and challenging as they sometimes lack the “self-awareness” or self-insight characterized by relatively low emotional intelligence (see www.eiconsortium.org for additional resources and information on the topic of emotional intelligence).

Performance Enhancement Coaching Strategies

• Provide direct and candid feedback asking for what you want the person to do more, less or differently particularly in the interpersonal area
• Consider utilizing mentors and internal coaches to help them to avoid derailment
• Utilize a 360-feedback process and development plan focusing on enhancing interpersonal competence
• Measure/monitor team, department and staff engagement (climate)
• Introduce and utilize a “balanced scorecard” to emphasize both task and interpersonal factors associated with performance

These aren’t the easiest coaching assignments–I’ve failed more times than I am willing to admit.  However, using some of the techniques of the Performance Enhancement coaching model you might just find the ” crease” with some to help them to become more aware of how their style, approach and personality impacts others. 

It’s so interesting that when we are “working” with Ajax by putting on his guide dog “bib” he becomes much more obedient and less “puppy like.”  Take the bib off and he returns to that 10-month year old puppy fool of energy, playfulness and warmth that makes him so adorable and loving….Be well….

Technorati Tags: guide dogs, seeing eye dogs, Guide Dogs of America, leadership, executive coaching, performance, layoff, social support, mastery, expertise, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, Envisia Learning, deliberate practice

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Competency Development – Part I

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: employees at all levels, those seeking to enter or reenter the workforce

Consultant Usage: reference material

What’s it about? I started to put together an end-of-the-year list of the top ten best business books of all time (as determined by me ).  Somehow the project didn’t feel right, so I stepped back and asked myself a couple of questions: Why are you doing this?  What are you trying to accomplish?  Right there is some good advice for those moments when you find yourself working on something and feel “stuck.”

The answers to my questions went something like this: I write this posting each week in support of an organization that does research and sells products related to workplace competencies.  Now I know a fair number of professionals who just love to come up with fancy definitions for “workplace competencies”.  I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy.  I like it simple.  So for the purpose of this and my next two postings on this Blog, let’s just say that a workplace competency is something you need to be good at to be successful in your job.

Note that I did not say “in your career”.  Competencies, at least as used here, are related to the job you are in now.  A different job may call for some different competencies.  That is especially true if you jump from worker bee to queen bee.

So, you say, what competencies do I need to be good at?  I can say with no hesitation “I don’t have a clue.”  That is for you, your boss and your organization to decide.  But what I can do is give you a list of competencies that are common to many jobs.  If you see one that fits, ask yourself “Do I need development in this area?”  If yes, consider the resource listed for that competency.

What follows over the next three weeks is a  semi-random list of competencies that allows me to suggest my all time favorite resources (mostly books) for that competency.  So here goes:

Visionary Leadership – Such vast territory, where to begin? Well, I would like to begin at the beginning.  No one had more to say and said it with more vision than the #1 all time business guru Peter Drucker.  If you want all of him in one book try The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management.  Or you can narrow your focus slightly with The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done.

Leadership/Influence – Consider either On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis (the 4th edition of this classic was released this year) or John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do by John Kotter.  (Boy it is awkward when a guy puts his own name in the title of his book!)

Financial Leadership – Thanks to my friend Andy I can recommend without reservation a business leader…ah, but which book?  If you are strictly interested in the financial aspect of this competency read The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Second Edition.  If you are more inclined to read an entertaining biography while absorbing many of the financial principles, consider the new and very positively reviewed The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life.

Now I am a little mischievous and like to have a little fun once in a while, so I am inserting this paragraph to find out if Andy really does read my blog every week like he says he does.  So Andy, if you are reading this, use the comment section and tell us which is your favorite Buffet book (Warren, not Jimmy)!

Goal Setting – This was an easy choice.  I laugh, but it is true.  Never has a simpler book been written on a complex topic.  The whole book could be…and has been … summarized effectively in one sentence.  Still the best book on this topic: The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard.

Decision Making/Judgment – I am less concerned with the mental process of making the decision than I am with the ability to select the best decision (doing the right thing as Drucker would say) and thus I recommend Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls by Noel Tichy (with an assist from Warren Bennis).

I have at least a dozen more competencies with recommendations to share with you over the coming weeks.  Hope they are helpful. 

Catch you later

Technorati Tags: competency, competencies, leadership, visionary leadership, goal setting, decision making, judgment, financial leadership, drucker, kotter, bennis, blanchard, warren buffet, tichy, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go but ought to be.”

Rosalyn Carter

Ajax, our guide dog puppy in training,  just passed his AKC Canine Good Citizens test at 9 months (a bit of a surprise because he still likes to greet dogs he meets by jumping on their heads)!  He was evaluated on a number of specific behaviors and skills by one of the professional Guide Dogs of America trainers.  It most certainly felt like the puppy raisers (my wife and I) were really the ones being evaluated. 

In a way, we are really a “performance coach” to Ajax helping him develop into the future leader we hope he will be for someone who might depend on using a guide dog to do the things many of us might take for granted.

Ajax has been a wonderful reminder about the type of coaching that is required for certain situations and talent with varying levels of maturity and performance.  Those in leadership roles should also identify with the role of being a performance coach with their own talent. 

Leaders as Performance Coaches

A recent survey by Blessing White (The Coaching Conundrum 2009: Building a coaching culture that drives organizational success.  Blessing White Inc. Global Executive Summary) revealed the following findings:

• The survey of over 2,000 international employees and 60 HR leaders reported that 84% of managers are expected to coach talent but only 52% actually do (39% in Europe)
• Only 24% of all leaders are rewarded or recognized for coaching and developing talent
• 85% of all managers and employees see value in leaders as coaches but 32% of managers reported it takes too much time and interferes with their job

The use of a performance coaching model can provide practitioners with a framework to approach coaching assignments and maximize results. This framework helps practitioners clarify the focus of coaching, estimated duration, use of specific assessments and insight about the level of motivation and readiness to change in clients.

Coaching can be targeted to each of four different presenting issues depending on two important factors: 1) Job performance (what gets done—output)  and 2) Interpersonal competence (how things get done—process).

Each type of coaching model has specific goals, typical assessments to be used, and approaches to maximize both individual goals and organizational outcomes. 

I’ve learned a lot from Ajax in the last few months we have raised him…I hope to share a bit more about approaches to developing talent using this performance coaching model that I can relate to in watching Ajax and his siblings advance on their journey to become a guide dog.

I hope you will join me in my next few Blogs and share some of your insights, learning and experiences so we can all benefit….Be well….

Technorati Tags: guide dogs, seeing eye dogs, Guide Dogs of America, leadership, executive coaching, performance, layoff, social support, mastery, expertise, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, Envisia Learning, deliberate practice

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Your Next Move: The Leader’s Guide to Successfully Navigating Major Career Transitions

Competencies: career development, self development

Who benefits: employees on a vertical climb

Consultant Usage: career counseling, executive coaching

What’s it about? This is a very narrowly written book, so this review is not for every reader.  If it is not for you, stop now and get on to something important!

The book is written for those who see themselves moving into the highest echelons of organizations…the real executive levels.  It is further specific in focusing on the critical transition stage in a new role.  In essence, you have a 90 day time limit to make an impact or crash.  Put that way, vertical climbers need to consider this book.

Before going further, let me add an additional cautionary note.  If you have not considered your career in an organized way before today, be advised that vertical climbing is not the only way to have a successful career.  Consider reading Beverly Kaye’s seminal book Up Is Not The Only Way or consider taking Ken Nowack’s brilliant Career Profile Inventory (Ken is one of my bosses.  If you are a regular reader of this column, you know I frequently suck up to the bosses.)

Back to this book.  I love lists, so I liked this book because it has two lists.  A short one and a long one.  If you have not read the author’s previous book on this topic, he summarizes it in the first chapter: The Seven Elements of Successful Transition.  That’s the short list.  And now you don’t have to read his first book.

He really got me with the first item on the 7-point list: Organize To Learn.  Sounds simple but I doubt if any of us do that naturally…we are too tempted on the first day by what’s in the inbasket, and after that we a hooked on the short-term and have no time for what is really important.  His advice is to figure out what you most need to learn, from whom, and how you can best learn it.  He sees it as a mix of technical, cultural, and political learning. 

The long list is essentially what this book is about.  His list is what he calls “the eight types of career moves as representative types.”  I simply call them the eight career challenges.  Each one of the challenges is a separate chapter.

That’s probably what you need to know to decide if the book is right for you.  I mention at the top this book isn’t for everyone.  But no matter where you are on your career ladder today, if you see yourself climbing to the top, you need to read this book.

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: careers, career ladder, promotions, vertical promotions, up is not the only way, career profile inventory, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley

“Just because you’re not sick doesn’t mean you’re healthy.” 

Author Unknown

Results of a new study from the University of Maryland confirm what working parents already know — the expanded work week is undermining family life. In a study of over 500 employees in a Fortune 500 company, researchers concluded that long hours at work increase work-family conflict and that this conflict is associated with increases stress and depression (regardless of how flexible an employee’s schedule was or how much help they had at home for child care).

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, some major career paradigm shifts continue to influence the value struggle between employers’ needs and employees’ wants.  Job security has been replaced by employability security, organizational loyalty has been replaced by job/task loyalty, and linear career paths have been replaced by alternative career paths. It is no coincidence that when reviewing characteristics of the “Best Companies” in America, we find a shift to those that are indeed “family friendly.”

In a poll by Reston, Virginia based TrueCareers, more than 70% of workers do not think there is a healthy balance between work and their personal lives. More than 50%of the 1,626 respondents reported they are exploring new career opportunities because of the inability to manage both work and family stressors. Not only that, a Monster.com survey in May 2009 found that 79% of all job holders said they had increased their search for new jobs since the recession began last year.

In a comparative survey by Atlanta-based staffing firm Randstad North America, in the year 2000, 54% rated family the most important priority compared to almost 70% in 2002.

For working professional women it is not unusual stop out of work (“off ramping”) to care for children, parents or other family demands. In fact, in a recent study by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce published in Harvard Business Review on differences in “off ramping” found that 44%  of the women reported leaving the “fast lane” for “family time” compared with only 12% of men.

According to a Family and Work Institute study conducted in 2004, over 16% of employees bring work home at least once a week—up from 6% in 1977. 

What makes these work/family issues more striking is that working hours in other countries are flat or even declining. For example, France recently enacted a 35-hour work week and mandatory vacations for all employees. According to the International Labor Organization, as of 2000, Americans are working more hours than the Japanese (1,966 hours per year compared to 1,889) and to every European country surveyed.

Taken together, these survey findings seem to suggest that indeed organizations are expecting more from all talent with less resources and security on the horizon.

What Can Be Done: Health and Productivity Management

A focus on Health and Productivity Management (HPM) can become a competitive advantage to organizations with an emphasis on reducing employee stress and focusing on optimizing wellness in the workforce.  Successful lifestyle modification can be facilitated by coaches using structured engagements to assist employees to increase awareness, set behavioral goals and develop effective stress and health management coping skills. 

One of the biggest challenges is attempting to link an individual employee’s health goals to an organization’s profitability and productivity goals.  Despite the challenge, a growing body of evidence in the field of health and productivity management (HPM) suggests that investments in the overall health of an employee do contribute to the organization’s bottom line. For example, individuals on disability comprise about 10% of all employees but they account for over 50% of all employee health costs in most organizations. 

Published studies have consistently reported positive return on investment for worksite wellness/health promotion programs for employees.  For example, a recent comprehensive review of 56 worksite health promotion studies found that 28 showed an average reduction of 26% in health care costs and 25 measuring absenteeism showed an average of 27% reduction.

For one’s client, the HPM literature can help make a convincing case that productivity and health are not incompatible—they are supported by the same lifestyle behaviors.   Increasingly, companies seem to be coming around to the idea that lifestyle modification programs and coaching can have an impact on morale, productivity, employee well-being and health costs.  One approach companies are using today is to offer lifestyle or wellness coaching to their talent.

Lifestyle Modification Coaching

Consultation regarding lifestyle behaviors has seemed to be part of the domain of physicians, psychologists and other health professionals—not the arena for executive coaches.  It can be argued that coaching for lifestyle modification fits well into the concerns of coaches attempting to increase effectiveness and performance of clients within organizations. 

The increasing prevalence of work stress, job/family imbalance and chronic health problems related to lifestyle have a direct adverse affect on individuals and organizations. Helping employees initiate and maintain healthy behavior changes is of increasing importance for the prevention and management of these problems.

In two recent prospective studies of ours, employees in a large aerospace and public utility organization who exercised more regularly, practiced positive overall health habits, had higher scores on resilience/hardiness and utilized appropriate emotion based coping reported significantly less absenteeism due to physical illness, less reported job burnout and greater job satisfaction at the end of a one-year period. 

Improving the total health of the workforce (physical and psychological) through formal programs as well as executive lifestyle coaching would appear to be important strategies for increasing productivity and competitive advantage.

It’s time to get my guide dog puppy Ajax out for his dailywalk to promote health and well-being before he goes back to work….Be well….

Technorati Tags: obesity, physical activity, work life balance, wellness, depression, sleep disorders, exercise,  health and productivity management, lifestyle coaching,  wellness coaching,  stress management,  stress, health, job burnout, envisia learning, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: How Did That Happen?: Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way

Competencies: trust, conflict management, two-way feedback, performance management, coaching, interpersonal effectiveness, empowering others

Who benefits: employees at all levels

Consultant Usage: must read for all executive coaches, counselors, should read by organizational consultants

What’s it about? Let’s begin with my disclaimer.  I have not read this book.  But I am going to recommend it anyway for two reasons.  First, the topic.  It is about accountability in the work place.  Think for a brief moment what the impact would be on business and government if everyone was really held accountable for their actions and their productivity.  I can’t even begin to imagine how different the world would look.

Here’s what the book jacket says about the topic: “The economy crashes, the government misfires, businesses fail, leaders don’t lead, managers don’t manage, and the people we count on for the results that affect our own performance don’t follow through, leaving us asking, ‘How did that happen?’”  That question deserves a book.

I am having my own personal sidebar moment here, LOL, thinking what would happen if the news media were also added to the list of those who should be held accountable.  Within days pundits would be in short supply!

Anyway, I said I had two reasons for recommending this book.  The second reason is because the authors are the same authors of one of my all time favorite business books: The Oz Principle.   I am putting together my own top 10 all-time favorites and The Oz Principle easily makes the list.  It is a book about personal accountability where How Did That Happen is more about organizational accountability.  I suspect they are very complementary.

The book was just released in August.  You still have a few weeks to be the first in your organization to get a copy, read it and then pass it around the organization with just the slightest bit of smugness.

Catch you later. 

Technorati Tags: accountability, personal accountability, organizational accountability, the oz principle, the oz factor, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley