hr

  • News

    Lessons from the Fed – Work on Strengths to Achieve Greatness

    What a fabulous weekend of tennis. It was particularly satisfying to see two such powerful women compete in the final. As a player myself, I find the talent and discipline of these young professionals so inspiring.

    But something impressed me even more than Sabalenka’s serve. That’s her acknowledgement of her team. “We’ve been through a lot of downs last year. We worked so hard. You guys deserve this trophy; it’s more about you than about me,” she said.

    It’s tempting to think of singles tennis as purely individual success. But we’re getting increased exposure to the teams behind the greats (with a little help from Netflix). So, what lessons can we take from the courts to the workplace?

    Tip #1: Play to Your Strengths

    “Working on your weaknesses may make you a complete player, but it will never make you dangerous,” says “the Fed”. I took this photo of the great Roger Federer in 2020. Watching him live is an experience I’ll cherish forever. And his advice to play to one’s strengths is top of my list.

    When we apply this subtle shift in focus within our organizations, we benefit enormously. First, allow employees to develop their strengths instead of focusing on their weaknesses. And soon, your teams will be comprised of members who bring diversity and passion to their work.

    Tip #2: Natural Strengths Give You Energy

    Marcus Buckingham defines strengths as those things that give us strength. And not what others tell us we’re good at. This approach means we’re the only ones who can decide our strengths. And better yet, we all have strengths.

    I’ve found my strength and passion in helping organizations and individuals realize their full potential. It’s what gets me up in the morning. And it gives me as much pleasure as my (recreational) tennis. So contact me if you want to know how we can inject some strengths-based thinking into your company.

  • Leading Self

    Emotional Intelligence

    Your Emotional Intelligence or EQ is your ability to understand other people, what motivates them and how to work cooperatively with them. You have the ability to understand and use your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.⁠
    ⁠
    Can you improve your EQ? Yes you can:⁠

    • By practicing how you react to people⁠
    • Observe how others react to situations⁠
    • Self reflection on your own emotions

    ⁠According to Daniel Goleman there are 5 key elements to EQ:⁠

    1. ⁠Self Awareness⁠
    2. Self Regulation⁠
    3. Motivation⁠
    4. Social Awareness⁠
    5. Relationship Management⁠

    Element #1: Self Awareness

    Over the years I’ve often heard… “he or she is just not self-aware”. Actually I’ve said it myself. Self Awareness is simply understanding how you feel, why you feel that way and how it impacts our behaviour. I say simple but it can be challenging for many. The good news it is something you can work on and develop.

    How can you develop self-awareness?
    Know what triggers your reactions to situations
    Reflect on how you respond to situations
    Think before you speak or act – give yourself time
    Understand what makes you happy

    Are there benefits? Absolutely
    You will become a better leader
    You will improve your happiness
    You will grow as a person
    You will have better relationships

    Element #2: Self-Regulation and Emotional Intelligence

    You’ve decided to do dry January and your friends invite you out for a drink. You decide to order a mocktail or non-alcoholic beer. This is an example of practicing self-regulation.

    Self regulation is the ability to manage your thoughts, emotions, behaviours and actions.

    There are 2 types of self-regulation:
    Behavioural self regulation – how you respond to situations
    Emotional self regulation – how you control your emotions

    People who practice self-regulation have the following traits. They are:

    • Self-aware
    • Persistent
    • Adaptable
    • Optimistic

    Can you develop or improve self-regulation? Absolutely!

    How?
    Educate yourself
    Practice self-awareness (see last week’s post)
    Be kind to yourself
    Exercise
    Seek feedback

    What are the benefits of self-regulation?
    A positive mindset
    Improved well-being
    Stress management
    More productive
    Stronger level of discipline to achieve goals

    Element #3: Motivation and Emotional Intelligence

    When discussing motivation as an element or skill of emotional intelligence, we are talking about intrinsic motivation. This means you are motivated by the act of doing something without any obvious external rewards like money. If you eat a chocolate – you are doing so for the joy of it. If you play tennis, you do it for the love of the game or for fun.

    Why is intrinsic motivation a key element? It simply drives performance. Motivated people and leaders consistently work towards achieving goals and have high expectations of themselves.

    Daniel Pink says “we are motivated by other forces: autonomy, mastery and purpose.” He defines these as:

    “Autonomy: This is the need to self-direct.
    Mastery: This is the intrinsic motivation to get better, to master a skill.
    Purpose: This is the ability to connect to a larger cause, the highest form of motivation”

    Can you develop intrinsic motivation? Absolutely!

    Ask yourself why you are doing what you are do.
    Do things you are passionate about.
    Do things that make a difference to others – do something for the greater good

    Element #4: Social Awareness

    Social awareness as an element or skill of emotional intelligence, means that you understand how you react to different social situations and effectively modify your interactions with other people so that you achieve the best results.

    According to Daniel Goleman the competencies associated with being socially aware are:

    Empathy: understanding the other person’s emotions, needs and concerns.

    Organizational Awareness: the ability to understand the politics within an organization and how these affect the people working in them.

    Service: the ability to understand and meet the needs of clients and customers.

    Can you develop your social awareness skills? Absolutely!

    How?
    Listen, listen, listen – generally this is a great skill to develop but quite important when it comes to social awareness.

    Repeat what is said to the person so that you are sure you heard what they intended to say.

    Pay attention to the person’s tone.

    Watch their body language.

    Place yourself in other’s shoes.

    Identify your own emotions.

    Reflect

    Element #5: Relationship Management

    Relationship Management as an element of EQ, means using your awareness of your own emotions and those of others to manage interactions successfully. Simply, it is about your interpersonal communication skills.
    ⁠
    This is the aspect of your emotional intelligence that enables you to succeed in inspiring other people and helping them to reach their full potential. It is also important in negotiating successfully, resolving conflicts and working with others toward a shared goal.
    ⁠
    According to Daniel Goleman the competencies associated with relationship management are:

    Influence: persuading others.
    Inspirational leadership: providing a vision that motivates others.
    Developing others: providing feedback and building skills and knowledge.
    Change catalyst: recognising the need for change and supporting the process.
    Conflict management: Settling disputes, differences of opinion and misunderstanding.
    Building bonds: creating and maintaining networks.
    Teamwork and collaboration: building effective teams.

    The stronger your emotional intelligence, the better you understand yourself which empowers you to make change happen.⁠

  • Career

    The Candidate Experience is vital to your brand! Are you measuring it?

    The candidate experience: using NPS for recruitment applicants

    By Dominique Pomario and Carole Cooper

    A few years ago we completed a Mini MBA in Marketing with Mark Ritson, which proved to be one of the most valuable courses we’ve done in recent years.

    One of the key takeaways during our time spent immersed in the Mini Marketing MBA was learning more about Net Promoter Scores (NPS). Net Promoter Scores are typically used as a customer satisfaction benchmark that measures how likely your customers are to recommend your business or services to a friend. It’s a measurement tool that companies use to evaluate and improve customer loyalty.

    At the same time we were dealing with the challenge of how to improve the candidate experience and better protect the employer brand of a large retailer during the recruitment process, so, we took our new found and in-depth understanding of NPS to overhaul the system.

    Research showed that NPS hadn’t really caught on as a candidate experience tool as yet but we had seen that Citrix in the US had been using it for a few years with some great results.

    As a major Australian retailer, this employer received a large number of job applications for various roles each month, and as a result, the recruitment team had to regularly reject a large number of candidates.

    With an acute awareness that candidates were also either existing or potential retail customers, it became clear that more needed to be done to protect the employer brand as en employter of choice but also its consumer-facing brand.

    In order to truly understand how candidates felt about their recruitment experience with the aim to improve it, we implemented an NPS system to easily translate feedback across the candidate experience.

    As a process of continual improvement, NPS scoring enabled the recruitment team to make informed decisions to better protect both its employer and consumer brands.

    Overall response rates were good, with 20 – 25% of candidates who were sent the email taking the survey. Overwhelmingly, candidates were also very willing to provide written feedback and answer three optional questions which proved invaluable in determining the different opportunities for improvement within the various stages of the recruitment process, as well as within the recruitment teams.

    To establish where the biggest opportunities were to improve on the NPS score, the team explored the optional commentary to identify two key – albeit glaringly obvious – areas for improvement:

    1.  email communication when rejecting candidates – what they actually wanted was an opportunity for personal feedback and less words spent trying to conciliate them;

    2. the phone interview experience for candidates was inconsistent.

    As a result of the initial first month in trial, we were able to overhaul all communication templates to really simplify the message and provide an opportunity for candidates to receive personal feedback if they desired.

    Similarly, thanks to the comments received, it was determined that recruiters were conducting too many phone interviews in a day and in many instances, it was fatigue that was affecting how they were dealing with candidates.  With some simple adjustments to workflow and expectations to manage the volume of phone interviews, as well as the time between them, the team was able to improve on results within a short 3 month period (moving up -41 NPS points to a score of -25).

    With the expectation of continuous improvement, this large retailer set its sights on achieving a positive NPS within 18 months  In June 2019, 19 months after the initial launch they received an NPS score of +8.

    Today, NPS is an embedded program within the recruitment team’s processes and helps to better control the perception of its employer brand to ensure a positive experience for all those who engage.

    Need some help with your people and culture practices? Find out exactly how we can help you here.