I Really Can’t Put My Finger On It

I recently received an email from a colleague friend who owns and operates a very successful  executive search firm. She’s quite familiar with The Power of Professionalism.  At the very end of her note she added the following PS:  

“I was comparing two people yesterday. I said to myself, ‘Person A is highly professional. It’s not that Person B is unprofessional, but Person A is notably highly professional.’ I really couldn’t put my finger on some detail or example that brought me to this conclusion. Odd.”

Isn’t that the truth?  Often times it’s our intuition that whispers to us how professional someone is. And more-often-than-not the assessment this woman was making is an unconscious process for most of us. 

There’s just something about how the person conducts themselves—which often translates to a lot of little, yet terribly important, things.  Taken in aggregate, it reveals a tapestry that could only have been created by a professional.           

In organizational settings (particularly) we’re prone to compare—it’s the nature of the beast. We compare because we must.  Who do we hire—candidate A or B? Which service provider—A or B–gets the new maintenance contract?       

Differentiating oneself is tough. Yet, I’ve learned that professionalism can be a big differentiator. For trusted professionals the key is to get others to notice—even if the person really can’t put their finger on the ‘why’.       

Four Ways to Make Performance Reviews More Professional and Encourage Greater Professionalism in Our Employees

Sean Conrad is our guest blogger today. He is a senior product analyst and Certified Human Capital Strategist at Halogen Software in Ottawa, Canada. Sean is great at sharing his unique blend of technology expertise and understanding of HR-specific challenges.

Employee performance reviews are a much maligned, but important management process that, when done well, can provide significant benefits to the employee, the manager and the organization.

The problems come in when we fail to conduct them professionally. Here’s a look at how four of the seven mind-sets can help improve the quality, impact, value and professionalism of your employee performance reviews.

1.     Focus on Results (Mind-Set #1)

Both when setting goals, and when evaluating accomplishments and performance, managers and employees need to focus on results. What is the employee accountable for? What are the standards by which success will be measured? What is expected, and what would be considered going beyond expectation?

Recorded goals should clearly lay out all these expectations and form a kind of “performance agreement” between the manager and the employee. Then, when it’s time to review performance and accomplishments, you have clear guidelines for measuring success.

Any performance ratings should be based on the results accomplished, not on a general impression of the employee’s performance, or the manager’s relationship with them. If we want our employees to have a bias for results, we need to start by making sure they understand what results we’re looking for.

2.     Cultivate Core Values  (Mind-Set #4)

As important as focusing on the results accomplished, employee performance reviews also need to consider “how” these results were accomplished. This is where core and job specific competencies come in.

Competencies describe “how” work is done, and describe the qualities of exemplary performance. Every company should carefully select core, leadership and job-specific competencies that reflect its mission and values. Then, actively cultivate these competencies in their employees.

You should include a description of each competency and the different levels of performance on your performance review forms so managers and employees have a clear and shared understanding of expectations.

If we want our staff to have personal standards that transcend organizational ones, we need to lead the way by actively communicating and cultivating organizational values.

3.     Give a Larger Context (Mind-Set #2)

You can foster a more collaborative and accountable workforce by always giving employees a larger context for their work. With goals, it’s important to directly link the employee’s individual goals to the higher level organizational goals they are designed to support.

Likewise, the competencies they will be evaluated on should be linked to their role and to the organization’s mission, culture and values. And any time you assign an employee a development plan, you should also clearly link it to the competency it’s designed to develop, or to the goal it’s designed to support.

This context setting helps employees know they’re part of something bigger and drives accountability and engagement.

4.     Support Development (Mind-Set #7)

Continuous development is another hallmark of professionalism that you can and should foster through your employee performance review process.

One of the chief goals of giving feedback and coaching, evaluating demonstration of competencies, reviewing performance of goals and assigning goals for the coming period should be to encourage the employee’s development, performance and career progression.

If we’re not trying to help employees get better at what they do, what are we really doing? Development and career progression discussions should be part of every performance review. And feedback, coaching and recognition need to be ongoing, year-round activities that continually help the employee to learn and advance.

Driving High Performance and Professionalism

When done professionally, performance reviews help to drive employee engagement, accountability and high performance. Their goal should be to foster continuous development and career advancement and encourage the 7 mind-sets so necessary to professionalism. When they fail to do that, it’s often because of the way we design and conduct our processes.

Sean Conrad is senior product analyst and Certified Human Capital Strategist at Halogen Software and writes regularly about the importance and impact of performance management best-practices.

The Key Mind-Set That Translates To Better Sales Performance

Professionals realize (and act like) they’re part of something bigger than themselves (mind-set two)

Mindset #2 often has the biggest impact on results.

An underdeveloped mindset #2 plays havoc on an organization’s culture—and the results that emanate from that culture.

Consider:

***An executive team that is littered with people who have messiah complexes and regularly back-stab each other.

***A department head whose self-aggrandizing style puts the organizations needs secondary to their own.

***A front-line clerk who believes they have a job—but not responsibilities.

For those familiar with The Power of Professionalism, these examples remind us of the debilitating impacts that the lack of mind-set #2 has on an organizations performance. And sometimes when we think culture, we think inside the organization. Yet culture naturally impacts an organization’s outside world as well.

Take the sales function for instance.  An underdeveloped mind-set #2 clearly hurts sales. Sales leadership expert Lisa Earle McLeod’s research has shown that quota- driven sales people sold substantially less than those sales people who wanted to make a real difference with their customers.  The latter group held mind-set #2 in spades, the former group far less so.

McLeod refers to the ‘difference makers’ as ‘selling with noble purpose’.  Her latest book—Selling With Noble Purpose–outlines the specifics.  McLeod’s research turns on its head the belief that money is the primary motivator for top sales performers.  The irony, of course, is that those whose primary motivation  was on making  a real difference with customers made far more money than those whose primary motivation was money.

For sales people the lesson is clear: put the client’s needs first and the money will follow—you needn’t have to choose between the two.  Isn’t that what you’d expect from a professional?

Trouble is “average reps are usually thinking about themselves and closing the deal”…this according to McLeod.  Whatever attention the average rep pays to the client, it isn’t their full attention.  Many of these reps can’t ‘get beyond themselves’. This doesn’t suggest they’re bad people, but it does suggest they’re subject to the whims of human nature—as we all are. Plus, the fact that most sales managers focus almost exclusively on ‘the numbers’ (at the expense of truly understanding—let alone appreciating– customer needs) no doubt contributes to this problem.

These average reps (and often their managers) simply haven’t yet developed a full appreciation of mind-set #2.  Unfortunately results suffer as a result.  It’s just as true with customers as it is inside the walls of the company.

Hard Unemployment Truths About ‘Soft’ Skills

A recent article by Nick Schulz of the American Enterprise Institute in the Wall Street Journal reveals some inconvenient truths about the difficulty the manufacturing sector currently faces in filling jobs.  There’s a lot of jobs that need filling, the problem is finding qualified people.

In many instances the difficulty stems around the lack of ‘soft’ skills—not necessarily the technical stuff. It’s skills that employers not-so-long-ago took for granted:  being on time for work, properly answering the telephone,  passing the drug test.

Others sectors have reported similar findings.  The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has reported ‘that “professionalism” or “work ethic” is the top “applied” skill that younger workers lack’.

This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to many of you. Here’s the full article—Hard Unemployment Truths About ‘Soft’ Skills.

To me the skill-gap that Schulz has identified is really not a skill at all, it’s the lack of a professional’s mind-set.  Yet, let’s look beyond the semantics for now.  The problem Schulz is illuminating is symptomatic of a declining culture…one that hits the business community smack upside the head!

More About ‘The Code’

When people use code they’re being less than forthright.  Consider:

The potential recruit who says, “I’m interested” when asked about their impressions of the position they’re interviewing for.  ‘Interested’ in this instance is code for, “it’s true I’d consider your position, but I’m really considering a number of options.” To assume the recruit is actually committed would be a mistake.

The senior officer who says, “here at ACME we’re always looking out for your success” when speaking with a new analyst in her department.  It’s a much weaker thing to say that the company (e.g. ACME) is looking out for the analyst’s success than for the senior officer to personally commit to the analyst’s success.  In this instance, ‘we’re’ is code for the senior officer to hide behind ACME (an oft-time nebulous, faceless organization) and avoid making a personal commitment to the analyst.

The hiring manager who says “we’re looking for fresh perspectives” to the 55 year old job applicant.    That’s code for “we’re looking for younger workers”.  The applicant shouldn’t be mislead, there is a snow ball’s chance in a very hot place they’ll be hired.

Authenticity is the anti-thesis to code.  Most organizations would be well served by increasing authenticity and decreasing code….largely because code is less-than-forthright, it can mislead, it breeds cynicism…and, most importantly, it undermines trust.  Until authenticity increases, know the code.

Not Now

I recently suggested to a colleague that we begin work on a new initiative we had considered undertaking.   His two word response—‘not now’—-was emphatic.

He wasn’t initiating a power struggle.

He wasn’t dismissing the suggestion out-of-hand.

He wasn’t being belligerent.

He was exercising great judgment.  Turns out, he was right.  The timing for the new initiative wasn’t right—we already had plenty on our plate.

It is great working with people you trust.  Judgment is one leg of trust’s three-legged stool (character and competence being the other two).   See page 80 in The Power of Professionalism for an extensive discussion on this subject.

With heaping ‘to-do’ lists, with demands brought on by the incessant speed-of-change,  with ambiguity being the norm—judgement has never been so critical.  It’s great to work with people who have it.

Does ‘Being A Professional’ Matter To Young Business Students?

Is ‘being a professional’ something today’s young business students care about? Do they aspire to become one?

These are questions I’ve recently been asking myself. Certainly, I’d like to think the answer is ‘yes’, but hoping doesn’t make it so.

It’s been suggested to me that when some young people think ‘professional’ they think:  stuffy corporate types in white shirts…and they don’t want any part of it.  There’s probably some truth to that, but my hope is that that point-of-view has a limited following.

I suspect that professionalism has not been fully appreciated–let alone understood well–by many of our young people.

In The Power of Professionalism I advance the premise that being a professional has little to do with the color of one’s collar.  In other words, being a professional is an equal opportunity aspiration.  Your education, your pedigree, your so-called profession, the letters that may follow your name have little to do whether you’re considered by others to be a professional or not.

In short: being a professional isn’t about what we do, it’s about how we do it.

My experience tells me that the being considered a consummate professional is perhaps the greatest compliment any one of us can receive in the workplace —at least for people over thirty.

But what about for younger people—particularly younger business students?  Is ‘professional’ something they aspire to? Young people, weigh in!

NOTE: We’d like as many young people to weigh-in on this question as possible, please share freely amongst the young people you know.

 

 

Ain’t Maturity Grand?

Senior citizens may cringe when being referred to as mature, but hopefully the rest of us will take it as a compliment rather than a slight.  I don’t know about you, but I love dealing with people who are able to:

***receive constructive feedback without being defensive.

***be genuinely happy for someone who may not be their favorite.

***learn through others experience.

***say “I was wrong”.

***speak of accomplishments in ‘we’ terms, not ‘me’ terms.

These are signs of maturity—the good kind!  They’re also signs that you’re dealing with a professional.

 

Professionals Don’t Trash Their Competition

Business requires we compete.  But most people intuitively sense that there’s a right way and a wrong way to compete.  One of the wrong ways is ‘going negative’. This is something that professionals know only too well.   Trashing your competition may provide a short term adrenalin rush, but long term goes over like a lead balloon.  People only want to be exposed to that type of rhetoric for so long, and soon after they’ll turn you off.  Worse yet, it makes you look petty.

People prefer to be for something as opposed to being against something….it generates more enthusiasm, more energy.  People want to know what your value proposition is…how you can help them…what you’re all about…why you’re better.  Trash your competition at your own risk.

Take the case of the PR firm that was hired by Facebook to “plant anti-Google stories in papers and blogs”.  This revelation was outlined in the Nov 29, 2011 cover story in Fortune regarding the future of social media and the fight between the industry’s two 800 pound gorillas.

Journalists soon discovered what the PR firm was up to.  This hurt the PR firm’s reputation and once again proves why white collar firms aren’t necessarily ‘professional’.  Facebook would have been better served to channel their energy into building a better product.  Instead, Facebook’s decision proved regretful and made the firm look sophomoric.

Compete?  Sure.  But don’t be tempted to take the low road.  Professionals compete to win in the marketplace—-not by ‘going negative’ on their competition.

Good Meeting? Bad Meeting? Look In The Mirror!

Have you ever been in a meeting when:

***the group’s enthusiasm gets squashed due to a few individuals negativity?

***the group gets stuck in the weeds

***constructive discussion turns into contention as people’s passion spills over

***the group’s energy gets drained upon the announcement of an unpopular decision

***apathy prevails when a less-popular colleague leads the meeting

***a normally rock-solid colleague uncharacteristically belly-flops on a vital presentation

Because negative energy feeds on itself, it’s easy to get sucked into a downward spiral in these types of situations.  Meetings of this sort are painful, often becoming the grist for Dilbert’s mill.  That’s why MS #6 (getting a hold of your emotions) is all-important here.

It’s almost guaranteed that, absent an intervention, the meeting will be a negative experience. For the professional, it’s recovery time. As easy as it might be to join the majority who enjoy whining about the meeting, the professional is unwilling to settle.  The professional asks themselves, “what can I do to help get this meeting back on track?” (consistent with MS #1…’having a bias for results’)

Thus, in responding to the situations above:

***the professional offers a contrarian point of view—one that offers a healthy dose of optimism

***the professional interjects a question or comment that gets the meeting re-focused.

***the professional points out that the meeting has become unproductive and asks the group, “Given  our situation, what do we need to do as professionals to get this meeting back on track?”

***the professional reminds the group of a similar situation years earlier—one in which people’s fears were never realized.

***the professional tactfully points out the group’s dysfunction, reminds them of the big picture, and challenges them to do better.

***the professional who draws the group’s focus to themselves—stalling for time—all the while enabling their flustered colleague to compose themselves and ultimately recover.

To be clear, the professional isn’t being a ‘yes man’, isn’t being pollyannish about issues of substance,  isn’t playing politics.  Rather, they are attempting to make the best out of a sometimes poor situation—in an objective, yet optimistic way. Professionals know that a good meeting—first and foremost–starts with them.