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A process of gaining insights about one’s behavior from superiors, peers and colleagues, and subordinates
Completion of web based surveys to gather feedback over a brief period
Confidential summary report which collates and analyzes data
Customized personal coaching to make best use of the results

Why do it?

It helps people grow
It’s a rare opportunity to see yourself as others see you
It helps you set goals and advance, and is a widespread best practice in the industry
It’s an opportunity to set personal development goals

How might the process work?

You select persons to give feedback and distribute web passwords
You complete one form for yourself
Our supplier compiles a complete report
You meet with Jay to review your report
You meet with you manager to discuss goals, compare rankings
You meet with peers, subordinates to gather additional feedback (optional)
You develop 1 - 3 professional development goals
You meet with Jay to discuss results, finalize goals, and create action plans

Who supports this process?

Our supplier, Profile Plus www.profileplus.com

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Case Study

HOW THE WEARGUARD CORPORATION GOT RESULTS TRAINING MANAGERS

How do managers learn best? What makes them try new behaviors? When do they seek help rather than resist it?

The Best Learning Challenges for Managers

My experience tells me that managers learn best when they face learning challenges that:

Are real business challenges, not ones contrived for training.
Are part of the manager’s operational responsibilities.
Aim at results for which the manager is personally or mutually accountable.
Can only be reached by stretching beyond what they know

Sadly, many elegantly designed and otherwise delightful training programs lack these basic elements. In our era of scant resources, the most scarce being management’s time and attention, that just won’t cut it.

Four good things happen in development initiatives built on these four elements:
The motivation of managers is a given, not a problem to be solved.
The need for improved performance drives a manager’s need for learning.
The focus on a business challenge yields results that are real and measurable.
Real and measurable results pay for the initiative’s cost, and then some.

WearGuard’s Experience

Consider the example of one of my clients - the WearGuard Corporation. Over the last several years they have steadily improved quality, productivity, and profits by implementing a team approach to work. We partnered to create a management development initiative which helps managers both adapt to and lead the new team culture.

Managers jumped to support the effort because:
The new team approach to work created pressing new skill demands for supervisors and managers.
Focus groups with employees showed clear room for improvement.
Benchmarking with industry leaders demonstrated compelling new best practices.
The managers themselves helped design it.

The program spans four months, involving small, cross-functional groups of just six managers. It begins with 360 degree feedback for each manager to identify strengths and areas of needed improvement, and features a signature challenge known as the Breakthrough Goal. Participating managers pick a tough and measurable goal which they can achieve in sixty days. The very best goals:

Engage significant project responsibilities among their people
Involve the cooperation and support of peers
Improve relations with other functions or teams
Apply new technologies or practices.

Measurable Results in Sixty Days

One supervisor chose to increase productivity in production teams while using existing equipment. Working with strong management and cross-functional support, she challenged a volunteer team to invent and test innovations during a four week trial. The team excelled, increasing productivity by 29% and increasing machine utilization by 16%. These efficiencies, when sustained across other teams, could eliminate the need for one or two additional equipment pods, at a cool half million each.

A supervisor in customer service targeted average call handling time, an internal productivity measure. Her group, at 723 seconds, had long far exceeded the corporate standard of 503. She and her team introduced new practices like peer monitoring, coaching, feedback, and incentives, and together hit their number for the first time ever, without sacrificing quality, while working with fewer representatives during a period of greater call volume.

My personal favorites are the goals that elicit a massive groan from co-workers. That tells you the manager has taken on a true bug-a-boo, which everybody knows, and which has driven everybody crazy, but that nobody really owns. These are the toughest nuts to crack, but when they break, they release tremendous energy and vitality into the organization.

The best training for managers is not really training at all. It’s smart support for managers to do what they’re already committed to do.

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Article

TUNING IN

Many individuals have sought me out for private guidance in my career of consulting and working with groups. Most have been at a critical stage of personal transition. They’ve been searching for a new path, or the courage to follow one that has opened to them. My work with them has typically been very short-term, often only one session in length. And yet great new possibilities have emerged. Here’s the process I follow:

You know the answer

I assume you already know the answer. You know which direction you want to travel. It is my job to listen intently for hints of that answer. It reveals itself energetically - the deadness of things you’ve tried that haven’t worked, and the lightness and excitement of things you yearn to know, do and be.

Separate the signal from the static

If you already know the answer, why do you need a coach? Your many emotional attachments to what you’ve committed to, and your fears about what might happen if you commit to something new, obscure your inner hearing. Your signal is there, but often it’s obscured by the static surrounding it. It’s hard to pick out. But when you lock into it, it still comes through as clear as a bell. Sometimes I visualize your options on a work wall so we can see and sort the possibilities clearly. Other times we walk in the woods together, and nature washes away what’s not enduring.

Follow your passion

I mirror back to you what I sense and hear is your passion - what you’re yearning to do, what you on some level already know you want to do. Your heart is there but your mind has not caught up. Your outer geography is not yet in synch with your inner landscape. If I’m sensitive to your passion, and reflect it truly, you’ll be delighted, but perhaps also quite afraid. Could you really have what you want? But what about…?

Take the risk

Once the signal is clear to both you and me - once we’ve tuned in to it - you must take the risk to listen to it. That is your task. I can offer no guarantees. I believe, however, that we are born into this life to have experiences, and learn, and fulfill our purpose, and that experiences which resonate to that signal we’ve just found are closer to our purpose than those that don’t. They’re the more direct path to our destiny. I also believe that though the external world may appear hostile to us when we are confused, it can soften and yield to intention which is strong and true.

State your intention

The fears that come up about doing something new and true, even if balanced by the excitement of realizing a dream, must be faced. As each fear comes up - what about…? - we use it as an opportunity to integrate its opposite into your intention. If you want to start a new business but fear failure, you set an intention of starting a business which is successful. If you can picture a successful business but fear it will tear your family apart, you set an intention of a having a successful business which is in harmony with your family. We clarify the intention and design rituals and affirmations to anchor it deeply in your being. The hardest part is usually getting clear on what you want. Once your intention becomes crystal clear, things that had been hard often become easier.

Do your homework

Once the heart has spoken clearly, the mind must get into the act, though still as a supporting actor. All the worldly work that makes for success must still be done. The work of research, planning, networking, etc., must all happen in service of your intention. We plan out the steps that will bring your intention into action.

Work with what shows up

Still there are no guarantees. We never know what lesson is in store for us. We must remain open to what shows up, and work with it. It can be an opportunity to strengthen our intention in the face of adversity, or gracefully release it for something else. We dream, we risk, we learn, and we go on. This is the stuff of life, and living.

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