Maximize Possibility Blog

Possibility Maximizer: Drive Thru HR Radio Show

Happy Friday!  I hope you have had a wonderful week!  I have a great resource I would like to share with you today as I shine the spotlight on an exciting daily HR radio talk show hosted by Bryan Wempen at the Drive Thru HR blog.  Enjoy!

 

 

The Resource: Drive Thru HR Radio Show

What it is:  The Drive Thru HR Radio Show is a daily online radio show for HR professionals hosted by Bryan Wempen.  This half hour show runs Monday through Friday and is broadcast live at Noon eastern time via Blog Talk Radio.  In his own words Bryan describes the show as follows:

DriveThru HR shares an inside look at what HR thought leaders are “really” doing to make the HR magic happen. The daily half-hour program, hosted by Bryan Wempen, will feature interviews with (HR) human resource leaders, social media futurist and entrepreneurs. Our guests have embraced collaboration and innovation that impacts the way we all do business both now and in the future.

Why You Should Check it Out:  First off, I must say that anyone who can hold down a full time position as VP of a well respected organization, serve on the board of several HR professional societies, and still find the time to put out a quality live talk radio show five days a week is a rockstar in my eyes.  Saying that Bryan is involved in the HR profession is a bit of an understatement!

Bryan has years of experience as a human resource professional and "serial entrepreneur" and brings his experience and lessons learned to bear in his show which runs the spectrum of HR topics.  If it is related to human resources, it is fair game on his show.  

I really like this approach as it keeps things interesting and helps to expose listeners to areas of HR they may not deal with on a regular basis which can help to expand their horizons and provides a more holistic view of how human resources can add value to the organizations it serves.  Guests on the Drive Thru HR Radio Show are diverse and come from a wide range of HR disciplines which adds to the broad nature of the show while simultaneously providing expert insight into the many different facets of HR.  

Want to share your opinions and be a part of the show?  Not a problem, Bryan also takes calls from audience members who can share their thoughts or experiences on what they see happening in their respective HR departments which further adds to the dialog and breadth of the show. 

Another thing you will enjoy about the show is that as a live daily broadcast, Bryan is in a unique position to share breaking HR news and business headlines as they happen and provide commentary on how these developments will affect today's HR professional.  This makes the show a great way to stay abreast of the news that matters to your position with a minimal amount of effort.  

Lastly, the online nature of the Drive Thru HR Radio Show is great for today's busy business professional as you can easily tune in online and listen to the show live at your work desk or if you prefer, you can download podcast versions of the show that can be listened to whenever is most convenient for you.

What are you waiting for?  Head over and check out the Drive Thru HR Radio Show today!  Oh, and be sure to tune in on August 9th for a special two hour edition of the show as Bryan celebrates its 100th episode!

The Rainmaker Fab Five Blog Picks of the Week

Happy Monday - I hope you had a great weekend!  Here are five select blog posts to get your week of to a fabulous start.  Enjoy!

Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership: Keep it Simple, Strategist: Why Simplicity is the Soul of Strategic Success -  Wally suggests the KISS principle is especially relevant to business strategy.  He finds that the most effective strategies are ones that are short, simple, and concise enough to be easily communicated to and understood by employees at all levels of the organization.

Jane Perdue, Get Your Leadership BIG On: Saying Thank You - A Simple Way to Enhance Your Leadership Toolkit: Want to quickly and painlessly improve your leadership effectiveness?  Jane suggests starting with a simple "thank you" or other small gesture of appreciation.  Best of all, it will not cost you a dime!

Art Petty, Management Excellence: Team Conflict? As Long as it's not Personal, Run With it - It is natural to think that successful teams are one that are filled peace and harmony.  After all, nobody enjoys being surrounded by conflict on a regular basis. However, most successful organizations welcome (and even encourage) conflict within their teams.  How can this be?  Art shares five reasons why conflict might actually be good for your team's performance.

Mary Jo Asmus, Aspire Collaborative Services: Seeing the "And" in Others - Mary Jo finds it too easy to dismiss the potential in others with the seemingly harmless word "and".  Perhaps you have heard (or even said) something to the effect of "Peggy is great at X and would be ideal for the promotion if only she could do both X and Y."  Buried in statements like these is the hidden assumption that someone who lacks a particular trait or skill will be unable excel at a given task or project.  Mary Jo challenges you to look for the "and" in others and take the necessary steps to develop the hidden skills and traits that often lie below the surface. 

David Zinger Employee Engagement: Terrific Top Ten Employee Engagement E -book:  David has been on a tear as of late releasing an impressive collection of free employee engagement e-books. If you are a list lover, you do not want to miss David's latest e-book which features a large collection of employee engagement "top tens" from a great group of highly regarded business writers, bloggers, and thought leaders.

Possibility Maximizer: The Employee Engagement Network

Happy Friday!  At the end of each business week I like to highlight a resource that I have found to add value to my professional life and one which I hope will do the same for you.  This week I would like to share a great community of individuals devoted to improving employee engagement.  Enjoy!

The Resource: The Employee Engagement Network

What it is: The Employee Engagement Network (EEN) is a Ning network founded by David Zinger.  This should come as no surprise to many of you who already know David as one of the foremost authorities on employee engagement and the author of a widely followed blog on the topic.

Leveraging his passion for developing engaged teams and organizations, David has built a community of 2700+ like-minded individuals who recognize the value of employee engagement (EE) and seek to expand the knowledge base and conversation surrounding this often misunderstood and recently popularized concept.  On the EEN these individuals have a unique opportunity to connect with others and share their experiences and suggestions through a variety of venues including blogs, forums / message boards, and other popular social media tools like Twitter and Facebook.  

Connecting with others is far from the only thing the Employee Engagement Network has to offer.  You will also find an abundance of high quality resources on worker engagement in the form of free PDF e-books, short videos on the topic, listings of upcoming EE events and seminars, and an impressive feed of news articles and stories from a wide variety of sources.

Why You Should Check it out and Consider Joining: First and foremost the biggest reason to check out the EEN and consider joining is the excellent opportunity it presents to connect with others who recognize the importance of an engaged workforce and are committed to Maximizing Possibility in the organizations they serve.  As employee engagement is a fairly broad term, there are a couple dozen groups within the network centered around specific EE topics that make it really easy to connect with others on the areas of employee engagement that interest you most.  

If you are not big into the whole social media craze, not to worry, there is an abundance of great content that you are sure to find of value on the EEN.  You will find a great collection of free e-books to download and read at your convenience, a news feed that puts the latest happenings in the world of EE right at your fingertips, editorial style blog posts, and even a zany video or two all aimed at helping to improve the engagement level in your organization.  

The bottom line is that employee engagement matters and the Employee Engagement Network is an ideal place to improve your knowledge of EE best practices and increase the engagement factor in your organization.  Head over and check it out today!

Three Reasons Why Small Companies Do Not Use Pre-Employment Personality Assessments

We see large and small companies hire the wrong talent all the time. 

I believe small companies make hiring mistakes more frequently.

To make matters worse, we typically see small companies retain Low Job Fit talent.  The result is a long-term performance drag on the bottom line of many small companies.  There are exceptions to my general observation but they are rare.

Not all companies have this problem, however.  I generally see large companies with seemingly more competitively at stake using pre-employment personality assessments more frequently than smaller companies.  Why is that the case?  I believe it is for three reasons.

1. Larger companies often have more accountability for employee performance from shareholders. Many small companies are tightly-held and family-owned. I believe there is often more forgiveness of low performance in small companies because of the personal relationships.  One might say this is a good thing.  I do not believe so.  Low Job Performance Toleration puts the entire company at risk.  Larger companies are often owned by shareholders who are removed from day-to-day operations of the company and therefore more likely to demand performance accountability from the management. If small companies had more accountability for performance results, they would use pre-employment personality assessments.
2. Small companies face a different competitive landscape.  Small companies often compete against other small companies in a competitive landscape that is less "competitively personal" relative to the world of larger companies. Smaller companies do not often have a "national footprint" and are therefore more "niche-oriented" and less "commoditized".  The result is inefficiencies such as hiring the wrong talent are better tolerated by the business models of smaller companies. 
3. Small companies typically do not have a structured Human Resources department that is committed to selecting the best talent possible.  Instead, the role of HR is held as one of several tasks by a senior team member who takes risks without realizing they are taking risks.

If smaller companies want a serious competitive advantage over their competitors then they must select talent using pre-employment personality assessments coupled with a structured interview.

Low Performers Are Laid Off First

High-performing "Rainmaker" companies carefully screen their candidates using a highly-validated pre-employment personality profile assessment to ensure that Low Job Fit Performers are allowed to find work elsewhere.

We have several debt collection Clients who have been excited by the recent downturn.  They are seeing their competitors laying off debt collectors in droves. 

Sounds like an opportunity, right?

Not exactly.

Thanks to our assessment process, we are finding what we thought we would find - Low Job Fit debt collectors.

Makes us wonder about the Talent Selection Strategy of some of the financial service companies whose debt collection departments our Clients compete against.  If these companies did use pre-employment personality profile assessments, what was the validity of those instruments?

The Rainmaker Fab Five Blog Picks of the Week

It was a great week for human resources, talent management, and leadership development blog reading!  As a service to you I have picked out five posts that I found to be especially good reading for you to explore and learn from.  Enjoy!

Wayne Turmel, The Cranky Middle Manager:  Show #245 Moving From Buddy to Boss - The transition from employee to supervisor or manager can be a difficult one for both the individual being promoted, and the employees who now report to him or her.  Some of the biggest difficulties come from making the move from being a peer, friend, or confidant, to someone who must now hold others (who were once "equals") accountable for their job performance. In the latest installment of the Cranky Middle Manager Show Wayne speaks with Guy Harris about how new managers can make the move from "buddy to boss" less painful.

Nina Simosko, Nina Nets it Out: Take Money Off the Table - Money is often used as a fall back to motivate and reward specific behaviors.  No place else are monetary rewards more widely used than in the workplace.  However, it must be asked if this is always the best approach to getting the results a manager desires?  Nina shares her thoughts on the matter and responds to an intriguing video by Dan Pink that she points to on the subject.  Here's a hint - money isn't always the best motivator!

Alison Green, Ask a Manager: Is a Subpar Employee Better than no Employee? - Perhaps you have seen this situation before: a poor performing employee is allowed to linger on with a team or organization because management fears what will happen in the interim of finding a replacement, or worse is worried that "corporate" won't approve of hiring a replacement.  An AAM reader is wondering why any self respecting manager would take this course of action and Alison responds with some great insight about the unseen costs a poor performer can have on an organization. 

Cathy Missildine Martin, Profitability Through Human Capital: Top 10 Reasons Why HR Professionals Should Use Metrics - All HR professionals know they should be using performance metrics to measure, evaluate, and manage how their department adds value to the organization it serves.  However, not all of these HR pros make an active effort to take advantage of benefits that HR performance metrics can deliver, so Cathy has assembled a list of compelling reasons why HR pros need to start using performance metrics to guide human capital decision making and optimization.

Tom Foster, Management Skills Blog: Put Out Fires, or Work on the System? - At times we have all felt like we are running from one fire to the next in an effort to keep the whole place from burning down.  However, there comes a point where the question must be asked, is a manager's time better spent quelling fires or working to prevent them from occurring in the first place?  Tom shares a couple of nice posts addressing this common dilemma.

Possibility Maximizer: Leadership Now 140

Every week I like to point you to a resource that I feel will help your professional development and Maximize Possibility in your organization.  Today I have a great resource to share that utilizes Twitter to round up the some of best leadership content that came out over the past month.  Enjoy!

 
The Resource: Leadership Now 140

What it Covers: Each month the Leadership Now Leading Blog rounds up a collection of a couple dozen leadership tweets from a variety of bloggers, thought leaders, and business professionals aimed at helping you to become a stronger leader.  These featured tweets run the gamut of the leadership spectrum to include materials from a variety of disciplines and topics such as corporate culture, business strategy, employee development, succession planning, leveraging technology, change management, and just about anything else that falls under the broad umbrella of leadership. 

Why You Should Check it Out: If you are a regular reader of this blog, it will come as no surprise that I am a big fan of summary lists that point my readers to great content I feel they can benefit from. 

In fact, I do this each Monday in my Rainmaker 'Fab Five' blog picks of the week where I chose five posts that I found to be especially high caliber from the HR, talent management, and leadership development blogosphere.  The Leadership Now 140 is similar to this except it is done on a monthly basis and uses the Twitter format of only allowing for 140 characters to share and point us to each selection on the list. 

There are two things that I really like about the Leadership Now 140.  First, it makes it really easy to find high quality leadership content that is worth the time to read and learn from.  With all the "noise" filling up the Internet and social media venues, it is great to find a trusted source of quality reading material.

The second reason why I am such a fan of this resource is that it is an excellent way to find new blogs to subscribe to, thought leaders to follow on Twitter, and other other like-minded individuals to collaborate with online who are also committed to Maximizing Possibility in their lives and the lives of those they serve.  I never know who or what I am going to discover each month when the latest Leadership Now 140 comes out, and that is what keeps me looking forward to the next monthly installment. 

If you are committed to improving your leadership skills and effectiveness you cannot go wrong with the Leadership Now 140.  I am sure you will find something of value in each installment that you may have otherwise missed.  Here's a link to some past installments;  if you like what you see, be sure to subscribe to the Leadership Now blog and you'll not only get automatic updates of the latest Leadership Now 140, but also a steady stream of other great leadership development content.  Also, if you are on Twitter, you can also follow Leadership Now there as well.

Now go Maximize Possibility!

The Rainmaker Fab Five Blog Picks of the Week

Every week I like to round up five blog posts that I found to be especially good reading over the past week.  Below are five posts I recommend checking out from the week of July 5th - 11th, 2010 .  Enjoy!

Lisa Haneberg, Management Craft:  Getting Out of Victim Mode - Lisa identifies a dangerous and contagious disease she has dubbed as "victimitis" and examines how it can prevent well intentioned people from making a positive change in their world.  More importantly, she goes on to give some suggestions for how to get over "victimitis" and even avoid it in the first place.

Seth Godin's Blog: Insubordinate... 50th Anniversary Free Ebook - Want to read more along the line of Seth's latest best-selling book Linchpin?  Seth has you covered with a free 40 page ebook that shares his experiences working with numerous linchpins throughout his career.  Included is an interesting look into the role insubordination and knowing when to go against the status quo plays in defining an individual as a linchpin.

Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership: Managing the "Toxic High Performer" - The topic of "high potentials" or HiPos and how to manage them effectively has always stirred up interesting conversations among HR and talent management professionals.  For some managers these individuals can be a real challenge to lead, while others cannot seem to get their hands on enough of them.  One area of difficulty for some managers is how to deal with HiPos that generate excellent individual results, but often do so at the expense of others.  Dan provides some great thoughts and suggestions on how to manage a potentially toxic high performer.

Kathy Rapp, Fistful of Talent: HR: It's Time to Want the Ball - Kathy thinks it is time for HR to stop hiding on the field and hoping the ball gets hit to someone else (figuratively speaking).  She finds that winners want the ball each play of the game because they relish the opportunity to get their hands dirty and make a real impact on the way things turn out.  Not surprisingly, she feels that HR needs to adapt this attitude in order to advance its credibility and influence in the business world. 

Hewitt Associates Research and Insights: The Current State of Performance Management and Career Development - The fine folks at Hewitt Associates have put together a really nice survey of almost 200 employers to gauge what tactics are being employed with regard to performance management and its role in employee career development.  This is some great research that you don't want to miss, especially if you work with employee development and succession planning.

Possibility Maximizer: Fast Company's 30 Second MBA

Each week I like to highlight a resource that I have found to be beneficial to my own professional development and share it with the hopes that you too will find it useful in your quest to Maximize Possibility.  This week I've got a unique and excellent resource from Fast Company that I would like to point you to.  Enjoy!

 

The Resource:  Fast Company's 30 Second MBA

What it is:  30 Second MBA is a unique video resource that in some ways resembles a virtual university.  There is syllabus, faculty, and even a dean (Ellen McGirt, pictured above).  However, the similarities end there; this is Fast Company after all, and you can't expect a traditional learning experience from an organization known for pushing the envelope they way it has.  

Each week a different topic or challenge is raised that business professionals can relate to regardless of the industry they work in or the role they play in their organization.  Each day of the week a different "faculty member" is interviewed to share their thoughts on the topic at hand.  Here's the catch, the "professor" is only allowed thirty seconds to provide a thoughtful response.  

Weekly topics are wide and varied and include just about everything from innovation and communication to leadership and corporate social responsibility.  Equally diverse are the faculty members who weigh in on these issues, which has included CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, leaders of small non-profits, entrepreneurial junkies, the occasional student, and everything in between.  

Why You Should Check it Out:  I love the format of this resource: it is quick, succinct, and delivered in frequent intervals.  By allowing only thirty seconds for a response, the guest professor is forced to provide a direct and concise answer to the question being posed.  Thirty seconds allows for fifty or sixty words at best, so the speaker is really forced to make each one count.

I am also very impressed with the collection of guests that this resource recruits.  Not only will you find some of the biggest names in business like Alan Mullaly, Mark Zuckerberg, and C.K. Prahalad, but you'll also get the thoughts and opinions of business professionals from successful start-ups, non-profits, and boutique enterprises that serve very specific niches in their respective markets.  You will also find a strong global representation at the 30 Second MBA with speakers from around the world stopping by to share their unique perspective on the topic of the week.

The frequency of lessons is also a great feature of this resource.  Each day you can receive an email update with video of the guest speaker providing you with a thoughtful tidbit of advice that you can use to improve your performance at work.  Being under thirty seconds in length also makes it is easy to fit into a busy schedule and easy to make part of your daily routine.  

Bottom line, if you can only find thirty seconds a day to advance your professional development, this is where you should be using it.  Head over and check it out for yourself and if you like what you see, be sure to sign up for the daily email alerts of new videos as they are posted. 

I am confident you will find this an excellent learning resource!

The Rainmaker Fab Five Blog Picks of the Week

Happy Tuesday and welcome back!  I hope you had a fabulous Independence Day weekend!  Here are five great blog posts to get your week started off on the right foot.  Enjoy!

William Taylor, Fast Company: Why We (Shouldn't) Hate HR - If you are in the HR and talent management profession, you have likely read Keith Hammon's infamous article in Fast Company magazine that espouses many of the reasons why workers hate HR.  Well, nearly five years have passed since Hammon's article, and many of us would like to think that HR is making positive changes in the right direction.  William Taylor agrees and points out some great reasons why we shouldn't hate HR and what the function needs to do to change the perception others hold of it. 

Derek Irvine, Globoforce: Culture & Change - It's ALWAYS About the People - Derek feels that the best way to manage organizational change is through the company's culture.  However, that is often easier said than done.  Derek reminds us that at the heart of every organization's culture are its people who must not be forgotten when initiating change. 

Stephanie Gaspary, The Hiring Site: Creating Great Places to Work: Lessons from 2010's Fortune Best 100 Places to Work - Fortune magazine recently released its list of the 100 best places to work.  What makes these organizations so great to work for?  Stephanie points out some common practices and employment strategies among these top 100 employers that make them such sought after places of employment.

Drea Knufken, Business Pundit: 50 Tips for Managing Stress and Staying Balanced - You don't need me to tell you that life is stressful and that managing the never ending stream of commitments (both personal and professional) can be a real challenge.  To help, Drea has compiled a great list of 50 ways to manage the stress in your life and achieve balance.  There are some great tips, so be sure to check it out!

David Deal, Superhype: When a Superstar Leaves Your Company - David Deal, the VP of Marketing for Razorfish, has a great post responding to his organization's recent loss of social media guru Shiv Singh and how a company should react when it loses a widely acclaimed thought leader.  Included are some great thoughts on how an organization should approach its employees' personal brands and the role they play in the "free agent" employment market.

Possibility Maximizer: TLNT

Happy Friday!  I have an exciting new resource to share with you before you head off for the Independence Day weekend.  Enjoy and have a wonderful Holiday!

The Resource:  TLNT

What it Covers: From its tagline one can quickly see that TLNT is devoted to "The Business of HR".  So What exactly is the business of HR in the eyes of TLNT?  In their own words:

TLNT is about “The Business of HR,” with news, insights and topical information from experts and thought leaders in HR, talent management, and all areas related to managing a workforce. This includes legal topics and issues, compensation and benefits (health, financial/retirement, and voluntary), HR technology and software, training and development, HR management, and other related areas.  TLNT is the “go-to” place for smart, timely and thoughtful HR and talent management information.

TLNT really runs the gamut when it comes to HR coverage and has content that should appeal to just about everyone regardless of what role you play in the HR or talent management function.  Whether its live coverage of HR related events such as the SHRM annual conference, pointers to the latest news and trends in the profession, boning up on HR laws and regulations, or reading over editorial insights from well respected HR thought leaders, you are sure to find something that will add value to your position and organization.

TLNT is a relatively new resource that was just launched in June of this year.  However, it looks to have all the makings of a high caliber resource that will help contribute to the advancement of the HR and talent management function and the professionals who work to progress it.

Why You Should Check it Out: TLNT is an extension of the ERE Network which has a long and distinguished record of providing top notch coverage and insight into the recruiting and HR world.  That right there should give you a pretty good idea of the quality of content to expect at the TLNT blog.  Throw a couple "heavy hitters" like John Hollon and Lance Huan into the mix and you have a recipe for an exciting and promising industry resource.

Many of you will recognize the names above as John most recently served as the editor of Workplace magazine and Workforce.com and Lance's blog - Rehaul - is widely followed by many HR pros and frequently finds itself on the top of many well respected lists of the top HR and leadership blogs.  You may also know Lance as a driving force behind several successful HR community sites including the popular HRM Today blog community.

Along with other contributing authors TLNT promises to provide a steady stream of high quality industry content that you will not want to miss out on.  As I mentioned, TLNT was just launched last month, but already it is chocked full of great reading and learning material that has me excited to watch this new resource grow and flourish.

However, it can't grow and flourish without your help, so head over and check out all it has to offer and be sure to sign up for automatic email updates to keep abreast of all the latest news and information as soon as it comes out.

Now go Maximize Possibility!

The Rainmaker Fab Five Blog Picks of the Week

Every week I like to round up five blog posts that I found to be especially good reading over the past week.  Below are five posts I recommend checking out from the week of June 21st - 27th, 2010.  Enjoy!

Gina Trapani, Fast Company: Work Smart: How to Avoid "The Busy Trap" - In our work lives, there is the "perfect world" where we plan out our tasks and projects for the day and complete them one by one in order of importance, and then there is the "real world" where emergencies and interruptions are frequent and can easily derail an otherwise productive day.  Gina refers to this as the "busy trap" and has some thoughts on how you can work smarter and avoid it.  

Institute for Corporate Productivity: High-Performance Organizations View Interns as Long-Term Investments - Summer is here and if you work in a medium to large sized organization there is a good chance you are seeing a new crop of bright, young, smiling interns walking the halls and adding to the break room banter.  While many companies use interns, some do a much better job than others according to a recent survey from the Institute for Corporate Productivity.  I4CP points out that the highest performing organizations view interns as a great way to fill the talent pipeline and get a feel for future potential as opposed to a cheap way to tackle the "grunt work" nobody else wants to do.

Chris Ferdinandi, Renegade HR: 21 Random Ideas About HR - Chris has been doing some thinking about the human resources industry and has come up with 21 random thoughts (and links to several relevant posts) about what he sees happening in HR and how the function should contribute to its organization's performance.  My favorite: #21 Great HR is about getting out of the way (and letting people do amazing things).

Nick McCormick, Joe & Wanda on Management: Play to People's Strengths - Chuck Martin stops by for the latest Management Tip Podcast to discuss how to manage more effectively by recognizing your employees' strengths and drawing on them as opposed to dwelling on their weaknesses and taking futile efforts to change what is not natural.  

Michael McKinney, Leadership Now: 12 Leadership Guidelines for Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times - Micheal provides an excellent review of the book Riding the Tiger that describes how an Indian software company was able to rebound and rebuild after a major accounting scandal by using a leading by learning strategy.  Included are 12 guidelines for utilizing this strategy during any turbulent time.  

Possibility Maximizer: LinkUp Monthly Jobs Report

Each Friday I like to feature a resource that I feel will help you in your quest to Maximize Possibility.  Today I would like to highlight a great resource that comes out each month from LinkUp that will help you keep tabs on which direction the employment market is moving.  Enjoy!

The Resource:  LinkUp Monthly Jobs Report

What It Is:  LinkUp is a job search engine that finds and displays employment openings directly from the career section of employer websites for companies of all sizes.  Currently LinkUp is keeping tabs on job postings from over 21,000 organizations.  

Using data from these employer direct job listings, LinkUp generates a monthly jobs report that highlights trends it perceives to be taking place in the job market based on the total number of current job listings found on company websites, as well as the number of new employment opening during the month.  The monthly jobs report from LinkUp also breaks down the data state by state and provides the percentage change of both current and new job listings for each state compared to the month before.  

Why You Should Follow This Report:  I really like the approach that LInkUp has taken with its job search engine portal.  The majority of employers use their website to post job openings and given the high costs of third party recruiters, online job boards such Monster and Career Builder, and the dwindling effectiveness of classified print ads, a company's website is the only place that many advertise their need for new employees. 

 As a result of this direct approach to keeping tabs on current job openings, LinkUp is in a great position to gather data from a massive sample of over 21,000 employers and provide a unique insight as to what is happening in the broader employment market as a whole.  By going directly the employing organization, LinkUp is able to eliminate duplicate job postings, openings listed by 3rd party recruiters, and even fraudulent or bogus postings from classified sites such as Craigslist to provide highly accurate data in its monthly jobs report.  

Here is how LinkUp describes the data used to generate its monthly jobs report:

"Because the index is updated daily and only includes job listings that are found on career portals within company websites, the completely unique jobs data is extremely reliable. There are no jobs from recruiters, headhunters, search firms, or staffing companies, and no scam jobs, phishing jobs, ‘money mule’ ads, or other fraudulent postings. And because LinkUp only indexes jobs from a single source – the hiring company itself – there are no duplicate listings that pollute job board aggregator sites such as Indeed and Simplyhired. Perhaps most importantly given the current high-unemployment environment in which companies are not compelled to advertise as aggressively in order to generate candidate flow for their openings, the jobs data is not based upon paid help-wanted advertising activity."

Bottom line, if you are in the talent management game in one form or another, it is important to have your finger on the pulse of employment market.  While the poor economy and high unemployment may make finding qualified candidates seem easy now, that will not always be the case, and it is critical that you are aware of any signs of change that may impact your organization's talent acquisition strategy.  

The LinkUp monthly jobs report is a great way to gauge employment trends both national, regionally, and at the state level.  Head over and check out their archive of press releases that contain several recent months of jobs reports, and be sure to check back each month to stay atop the latest data and trends.

Now go Maximize Possibility!

The Rainmaker Fab Five Blog Picks of the Week

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend and a wonderful Fathers Day!  As I like to do at the start of each work week, I have scoured the HR, talent management, and leadership development blogs to pick out five posts that I found to be particularly beneficial to help Maximize Possibility in your life.  Enjoy!

Dan Bobinski, Workplace Excellence: Do Leaders Shape Cultures? - Dan muses over the interesting question of whether leaders shape the culture of their organizations or if the culture of a company shapes its leaders.  Check out his post and see what you think.

Ann Bares, Compensation Force: Are Your Values Delivering Value? - Regular readers of this blog know that I am fascinated by organizational values and the role they play in establishing and supporting a company's culture; so naturally this post by Ann caught my eye.  With a recent Harvard Business Review blog post by Rosabeth Moss Canter in mind, Ann has some great thoughts about an organization's stated values and whether or not they are used in a way that creates value for the company.

Steve Roesler, All Things Workplace: Ten Ways You Can Be More Persuasive - The power of persuasion is an incredibly important and often misunderstood professional skill.  Regardless of job title or place of employment, your ability to persuade others to see and act on your convictions will play a big part in determining how successful you are in your professional life. Steve has ten great tips to help you be a more effective persuader.

Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership: Making the Move to Boss: Three Phases of Transition - Making the move to a management role can be a difficult transition for many people.  Unfortunately a high percentage of new bosses are unable to successfully make this transition and in the process cost their organizations considerable time and resources and also incur a great deal of personal stress, frustration, and heartache in the process.  Wally examines three transitional phases from individual contributor to boss and offers some suggestions on how you can make this transition more successful for yourself and those around you. 

Bob Sutton, Work Matters: The Best Bosses Are The Most Self-Aware - Self awareness is one of those "soft" skills that can be difficult to define, but is nonetheless important to one's professional success.  Bob feels that this is especially true when it comes to leadership and managing others and points out that the best bosses have a good understanding of what it would be like to their employee, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to adjust their management style to compensate for this.  On the contrary, bad bosses often live in a "fools paradise" of self oblivion that ultimately damages the performance of their team.  Check out this great post for more of Bob's thoughts on self awareness and leadership, as well as a couple of great links to additional reading on this important topic. 

Possibility Maximizer: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Happy Friday!  It has been a while since I shared a good book with you, so today I would like to feature a great one I recently read that has provided me with a fresh look at the way I approach many of the tasks and projects that I encounter on a day to day basis.  Enjoy!

The Resource:  The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

What it is About:  As its title would indicate, this book is of course about checklists.  However, don't let that scare you off or lead you to purchase the book as a sleeping aid as it is far from dull or boring.  In his book, Gawande explores the practical and powerful uses of checklists and how they can help to ensure that even the smartest of individuals avoid making simple mental errors that can often lead to catastrophic failures.  Drawing on his experience as a surgeon and his involvement with the World Health Organization's efforts to improve the safety and success rates of surgical procedures across the globe, Gawande shares a collection of fascinating stories of how checklists have been and are currently being used to prevent simple errors from derailing many of the highly complex projects and operations that are common in today's society.  

In a very surgical manner, Atul examines several different situations where proper checklists were able to contribute to a successful outcome such as the "Miracle on the Hudson", the construction of large commercial buildings, and of course in the operating room where a simple checklist was able to remind doctors of what they already knew they should be doing, resulting in thousands of saved lives by preventing central line infections.  

After illustrating the clear benefits of using checklists to prevent simple errors, Gawande goes on to describe how to implement them into your professional life.  

Why You Need to Read This Book:  As I mentioned above, don't be put off by the title of this book and its seemingly drab subject matter.  The Checklist Manifesto is one of the more engaging and enjoyable books I have read in some time. 

 As I read this book, Gawande's writing style and natural story telling abilities very much reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell as he masterfully intertwined a handful of unrelated vignettes to paint a greater picture of how and where checklists can benefit our lives.  Gladwell must have been impressed by the book too, as he wrote an exclusive review for Amazon.com which also choose The Checklist Manifesto for its book of the month in December 2009.  

My biggest takeaway from this book (and my biggest surprise as well) was that checklists do not automatically equate to a rigid and a robot-like workplace.  Instead they simply ensure that the things we already know should be done get taken care of and in doing so reserve our brain power for more complex, creative, and unstructured tasks.  

After reading this book you will quickly start to see tasks and processes in your work environment that could benefit from a checklist procedure.  I can personally say that implementing the theories in this book have helped to simplify some of the work tasks I approach on a regular basis and allow me to rest worry-free knowing that I have not forgotten anything important, but seemingly simple.  

I highly recommend that you put this book on your reading list.  It is a quick and engaging read, and I am confident that you will walk away with a new perspective on how you approach many of the regular tasks you face in your organization.  

  

Focus on the positive. When faced with a situation that seems dire - focus on what you can do - not what you are unable to do.

The Rainmaker Fab Five Blog Picks of the Week

It was another action filled week in the HR, talent management, and leadership development blogosphere, but I managed to narrow all the posts down to five that were especially good reading.  Here are my top blog picks for the week June 7th - 13th, 2010.  Enjoy!

David Zinger Employee Engagement: Engaging Questions: A Free Employee Engagement E-book -  David and the folks at the Employee Engagement Network have done it again and released another great e-book on improving employee engagement.  This time they challenge you with a powerful collection of questions that are sure to get your wheels spinning about the importance of employee engagement in your organization.  It is hard to beat a free resource like this, so go check it out!

Tom Peters! Leadership: Building Success - In the latest installment to his Little Big Things series, Tom shares a great lesson learned from RE/MAX founder Dave Liniger about the importance of working to help make your team members wildly successful in order to best serve the customer.  Watch the video here, or feel free to download the PDF transcript.

Heather McCulligh, Halogen Software Talent Management Blog: Why You Need a Strong Talent Bench - Most leaders and executives would strongly agree that an executive succession plan is critical to an organization's continued success.  But what about the positions left vacant by individuals moving onto more senior roles?  Heather explains why it is important to have a strong talent bench throughout the organizational hierarchy.  

Sharlyn Lauby, HR Bartender: Examining Employee Turnover - As the economy shows signs of stabilization and recovery, the issue of employee turnover is creeping back into the business conversation.  Sharlyn has some great thoughts to keep in mind as you look at the rate of turnover in your organization and reminds you that things are not always as they seem on the surface. 

Tim Sanders, Sanders Says: Don't Take Your Employees for Granted! - In a nice post to read in conjunction with Sharlyn's post above, Tim points out that we aren't operating in Q1 of 2009 anymore and that fewer and fewer employees are willing to stick around in a job working for a boss they can't stand.  His words of advice: "Whatever you do, don't take your people for granted."

Possibility Maximizer: Management Improvement Carnival

Every Friday I like to pick out an online resource that has been valuable to my own professional development and share it with the hopes that you will have a similarly positive experience.  This week I have a great management blog carnival to share with you.  Enjoy!

The Resource: Management Improvement Carnival

What it is: The Management Improvement Carnival is similar to other blog carnivals that you may be familiar with (e.g. Carnival of Human Resources or Leadership Development Carnival) in that it features a collection of blog posts from various authors that relate to given subject matter.  The Management Improvement Carnival naturally features posts on how improve your management skills and systems within your organization, but also has a special focus on how this can be accomplished using lean management practices such as Kaizen, Six Sigma, and even Hansei.  

Why You Should Check it Out:  The format on this blog carnival is a little different than other carnivals I have visited and been a part of.  In lieu of taking submissions from bloggers wanting to participate in the carnival, it is actually up to the host to pick the posts that he or she would like to include and feature.  As hosting duties are regularly passed between bloggers, this format affords an excellent opportunity to discover new authors that have influenced the host's own writing perspective that you may not have otherwise heard of or come across.  

I really like the carnival's focus on lean management techniques, which I feel is especially relevant in today's tenuous business environment as all of us can afford to seek out additional operational efficiencies via lean management processes.  

The Management Improvement Blog Carnival was started way back in 2006 by John Hunter of the Curious Cat Management Blog and just recently celebrated its 100th installment, which I feel is a strong testament to the quality of this blog carnival and the content it shares.  You will also enjoy that the carnival is held three times each month, so you will always have a steady stream of great management improvement blog posts to read and learn from whenever is convenient for you.  

Ready to improve your management skills?  Head over to John's blog and check out the archive of previous blog carnivals and be sure to tune in every 10 days (or thereabout) for the latest installment of the Management Improvement Carnival.  And, by the way... while you are at John's blog, be sure to check out all the great content and articles he has to offer and congratulate him on the 100th installment of the carnival he started back in 2006!

Rainmaker Top Five Blog Picks - Leadership Development Carnival Edition

Happy Monday!  You may or may not be aware that the Maximize Possibility blog recently had the privilege of hosting the June 2010 edition of the Leadership Development Carnival.  Given this special occasion, I thought I would change things up a bit with my weekly Fab Five blog picks and feature five posts that I especially enjoyed from the Leadership Development Carnival.  Enjoy and be sure to check out all the other great posts that were included in the carnival!

Heather Stagl, Enclaria: 3 Traps That Keep Change Agents from Getting the Support They Need:  True agents of change are a special thing to find within any organization.  As dynamic as these rare individuals are, they still need support to bring about positive change that will benefit their organization's culture and bottom line.  Heather clues us in on three traps that can keep change agents from getting the support they need.

Jason Seiden, Fail Spectacularly: 16 Rules for Giving Feedback - Providing feedback is arguably one of the most important duties a manager has when it comes to optimizing the performance of their workforce.  However, it is often one of the most difficult things for many to master.  In fact some even recoil at the thought of holding a difficult conversation with an employee whose performance is below expectations.  Jason provides 16 rules for providing feedback to help you with this sometimes difficult part of your managerial responsibilities.

Mary Jo Asmus, Aspire Collaborative Services: 10 Things That Will Foster Safe Conversations - One of the most important things a manager can do when communicating with employees (especially when giving feedback) is to keep conversations "safe" to promote an effective exchange of ideas and information.  Mary Jo has an excellent list of 10 things you can do to foster safe conversations with employees in your organization.

Bret Simmons, Positive Organizational Behavior: Want Your People to Care More? Help Them Perform Better - Bret feels strongly that there is simply no substitute for performance and no substitute for caring.  Furthermore, he finds that the two are intricately connected, suggesting that without the ability to perform at a high level an employee will not have the capacity to care.  Want your people to care more? He suggests starting by helping them perform better.

Utpal Vaishnav, Utpal Writes: Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility and Take the Right Decision - Utpal shares a great story about a project manager named "Peter" who handled a difficult situation with integrity by assuming responsibility and leading beyond his official title.

The June 2010 Leadership Development Carnival

 

Hello and welcome to the June 2010 Leadership Development Carnival - it is an absolute honor to be your host!

This month's edition features an excellent collection of 34 blog posts aimed at helping you become the best leader possible.  Without further delay, let's get to it!

Miki Saxon presents brilliantly-powerful thought regarding the "real alpha male", who to trust, and who to follow.

Stephen Warrilow presents How To Manage Change - Putting It All Together posted at Change Management - Practical Strategies For Success, saying that in the current economic climate, all organisations are experiencing the impacts of change and many could now benefit from the practical knowledge of how to lead and manage change. 

Eric Klen presents The problem with being positive posted at Dharma Consulting. 

Dan McCarthy presents A View from Inside the Leadership Pipeline posted at Great Leadership where he provides a summary of research from CCL and his recommendations on how to manage high potentials. 

Gilda Bonanno presents Dress Rehearsal for Your Presentation posted at Gilda Bonanno's blog. Gilda thinks that public speaking is an essential success skill for leadership development yet many aspiring leaders still struggle with it. This post explains how to conduct a dress rehearsal of your presentation so you can avoid preventable glitches and prepare for potential obstacles.

David Zinger presents Zinger’s 5-Item Employee Engagement APGAR Pulse Assessment posted at David Zinger Employee Engagement. 

Wally Bock presents The Perfect Leadership Book for You posted at Three Star Leadership Blog saying that you'll search the stores and online sites in vain for the perfect leadership book. But don't despair. 

Nissim Ziv presents Teamwork Motivation: How to Motivate a Team? posted at Job Interview & Career Guide, saying that as it can be hard to motivate yourself, motivating others can be even harder. How would you inspire people to work together for a certain goal?

Utpal Vaishnav presents Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision! posted at Utpal Writes where he shares a great story about a leader beyond his title who chose the road less traveled by assuming responsibility and making a difference.

Heather Stagl presents 3 Traps that Keep Change Agents from Getting the Support They Need posted at Enclaria: Change Starts Here.

Steve Roesler presents Managing: You're Still In It Together posted at All Things Workplace where Steve has a reminder for managers about how to be a successful. 

Richard Cummings presents Project Management: Creating Self-Managed Employees posted at Richard Cummings where he talks about how to create self-managed employees and motivate them to get the job done by having the employees tell you what they are going to get done.

Matthew Alberto presents How to Have the Self-Confidence to Change the World - Social Business Tips posted at Matthew Alberto .com. Matthew suggests that building self-confidence is so significant if you’re wanting to create and build your social business. And it is significant if you want to be changing the world.

David Burkus presents The Hawthorne Studies posted at LeaderLab where David explains the Hawthorne studies and how they changed management/leadership thinking.

Jane Perdue presents Tea Stains, Blind Spots and Simple Pleasures posted at Get Your Leadership BIG On!.

Michael Lee Stallard presents Summer: A Season to Connect posted at Michael Lee Stallard.

Bret Simmons presents Want Your People To Care More? Help Them Perform Better posted at Bret L. Simmons - Positive Organizational Behavior.

Nick McCormick presents What?s on Your Plate? posted at Joe and Wanda on Management. In this ten minute Management Tips Podcast, Nance Guilmarten, author of the Power of Pause, offers up her work prioritization technique.

Tanmay Vora presents Building a Culture to Promote Differential Thinking posted at QAspire Blog by Tanmay Vora. Tanmay feels that the ability to think differently and bring out alternative perspectives is one of the most important leadership skills. This post offers some very practical ideas to build the culture of differential thinking. A useful post for leaders at all levels

Jason Seiden presents Seiden’s 16 Rules for Giving Feedback posted at Fail Spectacularly!. Jason feels that most advice out there about giving feedback is, frankly, wrong and he's got the real deal skinny.

Mike Henry Sr. presents Impossibly Good posted at Lead Change Group - Helping Leaders Grow Leaders where he says that self-leadership is the first step in maximizing influence and possibilities.

Bill Matthies presents Problem Assessment posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By where he points out that you can't solve problems if you don't understand what they are.

Charles Chua C K presents 10 Instant Productive Working Habits posted at All About Living with Life.

Lisa Rosendahl presents Employment Law and Leaders posted at Lisa Rosendahl.

Eric Pennington presents Situational Mentoring posted at Epic Living - Leadership Development Career Management Training Executive Life Coaching Author where he illustrates the importance of finding the right type of mentor for your specific need and how to avoid the perils of engaging in the wrong type of mentoring relationship.

Alice Snell presents Develop, Engage, and Retain posted at Taleo Blog - Talent Management Solutions.

Sharlyn Lauby presents I Don’t Know About That posted at HR Bartender where she reminds us that part of being a leader is not turning a blind eye to questionable behavior.

Benjamin McCall presents The Problem With 2 Ears... posted at ReThink HR.

Mark Bennett presents It can happen to you? posted at TalentedApps where he shares the story of how Dreamworks found talent in a surprising place.

Elyse Nielsen presents Creating Performing Teams is Key posted at Anticlue suggesting that in order to be a successful manager, you have got to be able to create performing teams. You can have a list of initials after your name detailing certifications, accreditations, or titles but without an understanding of how to establish an environment where collaboration and self-motivation are a part of the team's culture - you have just met the Peter Principle.

Mark Stelzner presents Twitter 101 for HR posted at Inflexion Advisors.

Mary Jo Asmus presents Ten Things That Will Foster Safe Conversations posted at Aspire Collaborative Services.

Jennifer Miller presents Redemption posted at The People Equation.

Working Girl presents Diversity and good management posted at Working Girl. 

Kathy C presents Four Similarities Between Dog Training and Employee Management posted at The Thriving Small Business where she illustrates the similarities between managing employees and concepts used in training dogs.

That is all for this installment of the Leadership Development Carnival.  A big thanks goes out to Dan McCarthy for sharing the hosting duties!  Be sure to tune into his blog next month for the July edition of the Carnival of Leadership Development!

Possibility Maximizer: Fresh Milk Newsletter From Contented Cows

Each Friday I like to feature a resource that I feel will help in your quest to Maximize Possibility in your life and in your organization.  This week I've got a fantastic monthly newsletter that plays into the old adage that happy cows produce more milk.  Enjoy!

The Resource:  Fresh Milk newsletter from Contented Cows

What It Covers: There is an old saying that happy cows produce more milk.  Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden have taken this bit of wisdom and applied it to the workplace.  Their philosophy is that happy employees take pride in their job, produce more, deliver an exceptional Customer Experience, and ultimately add more to the bottom line.  

This newsletter seeks to achieve the aforementioned benefits of a happy and engaged workplace by providing you with an excellent and actionable talent management article each month that will challenge you to change the way you think about work and the way you manage within your organization. 

As there is no shortage of opportunities to reap the benefits of a happy workforce, the topical subject matter of this newsletter is almost limitless.  However, I have found that Bill and Richard write especially well thought out articles in the areas of leadership, communication, employee retention, performance management, cultural change, employee coaching, and talent management.

Why You Should Check It Out: First off, let me start by saying that I absolutely love the mission and purpose that Bill and Richard bring to their newsletter and organization: Creating Great Places to Work.  It lets you know their heart is in this business for the right reasons, and in many ways this newsletter reminds me why I started The Rainmaker Group back in 2001: an unwillingness to accept the status quo of today's workplace and an intense desire to make it more inspiring and rewarding for both employees and managers.

The Contented Cow Partners have been producing this newsletter regularly for over five years.  In fact, they have been providing Fresh Milk to managers and leaders to help improve employee engagement long before the phrase reached buzzword status.  

The articles in Fresh Milk are timely and relevant to the major issues facing today's workplace and will leave you with a fresh perspective on how you approach your job as a manager or leader in your organization and how your actions affect your workforce (and ultimately the Customer Experience).  I am also confident that you will appreciate the clear and concise writing style that Bill and Richard bring to their newsletter that is easy to follow and typically devoid of management buzzwords and HR jargon.  

If you recognize the importance of having an engaged workforce of "contented cows", I cannot stress highly enough that you check out the Fresh Milk newsletter and subscribe today.  

Now go Maximize Possibility! 

The Rainmaker Fab Five Blog Picks of the Week

Happy Tuesday and welcome back!  I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day!  Here are five great blog posts to kick off this shortened work week.  Enjoy!

Daniel Thomas, Personnel Today: Social Media Benefits are not Reaching HR - There is little doubt that the emergence of social media has the opportunity to impact the future of the workplace in deep and powerful ways.  However, a research survey by the Melcrum Consultancy reveals that only 11% of respondents felt social media has helped human resources to be more effective.  Read the article to find out some possible reasons why...

Frank Roche, Know HR: 10 Things Every HR Practitioner Should Know About Social Media - In light of the report from Personnel Today, Frank has a little straight talk about social media for HR folks.  Check out his short and powerful post for 10 things you need to know about using social media.  My Favorite: "be prepared to talk to actual employees".

Bob Sutton, Harvard Business Review Blog: 12 Things Good Bosses Believe - If you've ever visited Bob Sutton's Work Matters blog you likely noticed a manifesto of sorts that resides in the left hand column and shares 17 things that he believes about the workplace.  In a great post for the HBR blog, Bob puts himself in the shoes of the boss and identifies 12 things good bosses believe.

Evan Carmichael: The Top 50 Human Resources blogs to Watch in 2010 - Evan has put together a great list of HR related blog posts that you should be following in 2010.  Check it out to see which of your favorite bloggers made the list and to discover some great writers you may not be aware of.

Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership by Dan: Are "Classic" Management Theories Still Relevant? - The world of management is a fascinating one that never seems to be in short supply of new theories, best practices, and of course the occasional fad.  Over the course of time some of these theories have come to be considered "classics", but are they still relevant or just the stuff of management lore?  Dan has some great thoughts on this intriguing question.  

Possibility Maximizer: Fear.less

Happy Friday!  Memorial Day is right around the corner and with it comes the unofficial start of summer.  The changing of seasons is a great time to renew your commitment to Maximize Possibility in your personal and professional lives.  Today I have a great resource to help you do just that by eliminating the fear that can take control of your life if you are not careful.  Enjoy and have a great holiday weekend!

 
The Resource: Fear.less

What it is:  Fear.less is a powerful monthly newsletter that features inspiring stories of individuals who faced and conquered the fear in their lives head-on.  Whether it is a physical or medical threat, the fear of failure in business, the search for one's true self identity, or the pressure of an ever changing world, this newsletter shares effective ways that to overcome the fear that all of us face everyday in life. 

While the monthly newsletter is the mainstay of this resource, the folks at Fear.less also put out an excellent blog that aids their mission of supporting our right to live without fear.  Together, the newsletter and blog are a powerful one-two punch to knock the fear out of your life.

Why You Should Check it Out and Subscribe: The world is awash in fear.  Financial markets seem to be in perpetual chaos, our environment is in peril due to natural and man made disasters, and feelings of uncertainty abound in our everyday lives.  Everywhere you look there are reasons for fear.

All this can become quite overwhelming and difficult to handle at times.  However, fear does not need to hold you back from realizing your dreams and ambitions.  This resource will help you to harness the fear in your life and use it as a motivating and driving force instead of allow it to paralyze your quest for happiness. 

The monthly newsletter is incredibly substantive and packed full of inspiring stories that remind you that fear can be overcome and your true potential unlocked with determination and the right mental mindset.  Couple this with a steady stream of content from their blog and you are sure to get a leg up on defeating the fear you face everyday in life and business. 

Quite frankly, you cannot afford to allow fear to control your life.  Fear.less can help.  It is powerful reading, so check it out and subscribe today!

The Cost of Low Performers

How much are your low performers costing you?  More than you might imagine...

During a recent conversation with the CEO of a debt collection company I was told, "I reduced my staff by 30 percent and we actually collected more debt."

Ouch.

During a recent review of a sales team for a national company, we identified that the bottom sales "performers" produced less than 20 percent of that of top performers.

Ouch.

We see this all the time.  When low performers are removed from the team, the team actually performs at a higher performance level.

What are your lowest performers costing your bottom line?

Whether you are hiring a sales person, debt collector, or nurse...  The talent selection process is highly-structured.  We typically recommend the following:

1. Stop trusting your "gut" during the interview process.  Low performers can "bluff" their way onto your "bus".  Human Resources usually does not want to hear this.  Many are still "old school". 

2. Benchmark the position.  When you benchmark the job (not your best talent), you have the foundation for employee performance.

3. Assess talent potential through a pre-employment personality assessment that measures the Behaviors, Values, and Personal Attribute necessary to do the job well.

Who are your low performers?

What are you doing to help them find other work?

Now go Maximize Possibility.

The Rainmaker 'Fab Five' Blog Picks of the Week

Every week I like to round up five blog posts that I found to be especially good reading over the past week.  Below are five posts I recommend checking out from the week of May 17th - 23rd, 2010.  Enjoy!

The Institute for Corporate Productivity (I4CP): Talent Management Metrics Get an "F" - Talent management has been all the rage in human resource management in recent years.  However, as revealed by a recent research report released by the I4CP, there is a big difference in performance between organizations that effectively manage its talent and companies that do not.  At the heart of this performance disparity, I4CP suggests, may be the way organizations measure (or fail to measure) employee performance.  

Cathy Missildine-Martin, Profitability Through Human Capital: It's NOT My Problem!  Oh Really? - Cathy estimates (and I am inclined to agree) that 90% of all organizational problems are people-related.  So how is it that HR pros can sit back and say "that is not our problem" when issues come up with other functions like sales or manufacturing?  They cannot, Cathy explains, calling on HR pros to help bring potential solutions to problems throughout the organizations they serve.

Jessica Lee, Fistful of Talent: FOT/HR Capitalist Talent Management Blog Power Rankings - Kris, Jessica, and the rest of the FOT gang have compiled the 7th edition of their talent management blog power rankings.  Check it out to see where some of your favorite bloggers rank and to discover some great blogs you may not be aware of!

Guy Kawasaki, American Express Open Forum: 5 Ways to be Persuasive - Looking for some tips to help persuade others to support your point of view?  Guy has five great tips to help you be more persuasive when and where it matters most.

Tom Foster, Management Skills Blog: Band-Aid Fixes - Tom wants to know if you are constantly applying the same old band-aid fixes to management problems that just don't seem to go away.  The solution, he suggests, is not to come up with more temporary fixes, but rather to devote the necessary time to find and fix the root of your problems within your management system.  

Possibility Maximizer: Buck Consultants Knowledge Resources

Happy Friday! At the end of each business week I like to share a resource that I feel will add value to your professional life and help you to Maximize Possibility in your organization.  This week I have a great business research resource to share from the well respected Buck Consultants.

 
The Resource: Buck Consultants Knowledge Resources

What it is: The Buck Consultants knowledge center is an impressive collection of HR and HR related information resources on a wide range of topics including employee compensation, benefits administration, employee engagement, performance management, change management, communication, and human capital management, just to name a few.  

You will find their research in a variety of formats like case studies, surveys, white papers, newsletter articles, and editorial-like letters from Buck team members on select issues.  One unique feature of their knowledge resource center that I particularly like is that in addition to publishing great primary research, they also compile secondary market data and research and organize it into convenient and easy to read tables and graphs that make following government data and macroeconomic trends a breeze. 

Why You Should Check it Out: Buck Consultants is best known as a leading employee benefits consultancy; however, its expertise extends much deeper than just compensation and benefits and reaches into almost every aspect of the HR and talent management profession. 

The fact that they have been around for over 90 years (since 1916) demonstrates their ability to adapt to an ever changing business environment and they bring much of what they have learned through the process to the table in their knowledge resources center.  The amount of knowledge that can be amassed in 90 years of business is immense and we are all fortunate that Buck is so willing to share what they are continually discovering.

One look at the Buck Consultants website quickly reveals how seriously they take knowledge acquisition and dissemination.  There are only three links on their main navigation: services (they are a for-profit after all), about us, and knowledge resources.  An examination of their organization chart will further show just how serious they are about learning and sharing with others as an entire division of their organization (that reports to the CEO) is devoted to managing this knowledge center. 

Why do they do all this?  According to their website, they do this to "help you understand the impact of any changes [to the HR and benefits world] before you're affected".  Pretty cool I would say. 

The bottom line is that resources like this are increasingly rare in today's short-sighted business world.  I highly suggest you head to their website and check out the Buck Consultants knowledge resources.  There is a wealth of free information available for discovery and regardless of what area of HR or talent management you work in, I am confident that you will find some high quality information that will positively contribute to your professional performance and effectiveness.

A Few Resources to get you Started:

• Survey reports
• Newsletters
• White papers
• Published articles
• Global View magazine
• Key indicators 

The Rainmaker 'Fab Five' Blog Picks of the Week

Wow, it sure was an action packed week in the human resources, talent management, and leadership blogosphere!  Narrowing down all the posts to pick my top five sure was a challenge!  Here are five blog posts (and a bonus pick) that I found to be especially good reading for the week of May 10th - 16th, 2010.  Enjoy!

John Hunter, Curious Cat Management: Interruptions Can Severely Damage Performance - John calls attention to a common and serious threat to employee performance that is often overlooked or unrecognized: interruptions throughout the workday.  These interruptions are often incredibly costly as it can be a real challenge to return to a high level of productivity after one is distracted or interrupted.  John also offers some tips for avoiding interruptions of your work day and what to do about them when they are unavoidable.

Tim Sanders, Sanders Says: Rehearse Dealing With Distractions - Tim put out a great article this week that goes well with the first post on my list.  He suggests finding "real-life situations" to rehearse how you will deal with distractions to make it easier to focus on your most important tasks as you are interrupted throughout the day.

Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership: 3 Lessons from the Military - Wally distills the many possible lessons from his time in the military to three simple and powerful things he has found to apply to business management: help the young one succeed, learn from experience, and use simple decision tools.  Check out this great post for his thoughts on each of these useful lessons taken from the armed forces.

Cliff Kuang, Fast Company: How to Motivate People: Skip the Bonus and Give them a Real Project - There is no shortage of tips and advice to be found online about how you can better motivate your staff.  Cliff has a great piece of employee motivation advice that won't cost you a dime - in fact it might even save you money you would have likely spent in vain.  He suggests that instead of using a bonus to motivate certain team members, you should hold on to the cash and give them a project that they will find engaging and learn something from.  

Seth Godin, Seth's Blog: Who do you Work for? (and who Works for you?) - Seth turns the typical thinking about the employee/manager relationship upside down in this short and powerful post.  He suggests that instead of asking what your employees can do for you, a better question is to ask what can you do to help your employees be wildly successful in their position.

Bonus Pick: Drea Knufken from the Business Pundit blog is a master at gathering resources to help you succeed at work and in life.  Check out her recent post with 50 tips for being happier at work.

Possibility Maximizer: Outstanding! Podcasts With John Miller

Every Friday I like to feature a resource that I feel will add value to your professional and/or personal life.  This week I've got a great podcast to share with you from the preeminent authority on a topic I am particularly passionate about: Personal Accountability.  Enjoy!

The Resource:  Outstanding! Podcasts with John Miller

What it Covers:  In this series of podcasts, John Miller supplements the ideas and suggestions he puts forth in his latest book - Outstanding! - to help readers and listeners to realize their full potential and discover greatness in their personal and professional lives.  He sums up the mission of his podcast quite well with the following statement excerpted from his website:

“Outstanding” means superior, striking, clearly noticeable—to stand out. Everyone wants to buy from, sell to, invest in, volunteer at and work for outstanding organizations and to become outstanding individuals themselves. Filled with practical ideas that can be applied at work and at home, this fast, frank and fun show provides a roadmap for people and organizations to become exceptional. Be challenged. Be OUTSTANDING!

The format varies from show to show, where you will find a nice mix of engaging interviews and dialog with well respected authors and business thinkers like Mark Sanborn, Lisa Ford, and Scott Mckain, as well well as solo segments where John discusses principles from his book and how to apply them to your life.

As the author of two best selling books on Personal Accountability (QBQ! and Flipping the Switch), there is also a healthy dose of discussion on how Personal Accountability serves as the foundation to realizing greatness in your life.  

Why You Should Check it Out:  Anyone who follows my blog or subscribes to my newsletter knows that I am a huge fan of John Miller and his efforts to make Personal Accountability a core value in the organizations he works with and the audiences he speaks to. 

His two books on the subject are incredibly powerful and have helped to change the cultures of many of the Clients I work with and have benefited the lives of countless individuals who have learned to ask better questions of themselves (the Question Behind the Question).  I was pleased to find that John's latest book, Outstanding!, lives up to the high standard set in his previous works.  

John is often quoted as saying "repetition is the motor of learning".  Meaning... one cannot simply read a book or attend a workshop and expect meaningful change.  Instead one must continually revisit the principles necessary to produce desirable change to ensure they are top of mind and consciously applied to everyday life.  

These podcasts are an excellent way to do just that.  They are engaging, convenient to listen to whenever and wherever you want, free of charge, and best of all they will help reinforce the core principles of John's book Outstanding!.  Even if you haven't read his latest book (or any of his books for that matter), you are sure to take something away from the podcasts that will benefit your life both professionally and personally.  

What are you waiting for?  Head over and check out John Miller's Outstanding! podcast series today!

A Few Podcasts to Get You Started:  

Factor in Fred with Guest Mark Sanborn

Creativity: Beating the Competition with Guest Scott McKain

Integrity: An Idea that Works!

It's All About Personal Accountability with Guest Larry Winget

Carnival of Human Resources at HR Observations!

Michael Haberman is hosting the latest Carnival of Human Resources at the HR Observations blog.  Check it out for a great collection of 20 HR, leadership, and talent management posts from an insightful group of bloggers! 

While you are there, be sure to poke around Mike's blog... Lots of great stuff to be found!

Managing People Effectively - Are You Mismanaging Talent?

If one were to take a high performance sports car and wreck it, whose fault would it be?

The "high performance sports car" had performance potential without question.  Yet the "driver" did not effectively use that performance potential - they "misused" it and wrecked the car.  Of course, one would blame the driver, not the car.

Apply this logic to managing people effectively.  How often does the manager get the blame for mismanaging the performance potential of an employee team member?

Managers do mismanage.  Often.  But how do we objectively know when a manager is mismanaging talent?

What could be done differently with that knowledge?

One cannot know unless they Benchmark the Job and compare the talent to the needs of the position.  Only this way will identify the true performance potential of talent - who the "true sports cars" are and who the low performers are.

We recently did a performance analysis of four high and four low performers according to their quarterly results sales results.  The results were quite interesting.

As always, our profile assessment tools clearly pointed out the Behaviors, Values, and Personal Attribute differences of the high and low performers.  But one of our identified "high performers" was not actually performing well.

Why?  It is difficult to say exactly.  The identified person was a sales professional in the position for less than two years.  It is safe to say that they should have been "up-to-speed" and performing within the same range as the other high performers but they were not.

My first inclination is to look at the resources provided to this particular sales person to ensure they are getting what they need. 

Most importantly, their sales manager must engage, coach, and expect high performance from this team member.

Talent Management Clarity is Important

The potential is there - just like the potential of the sports car.  It is up to the "driver" - management to maximize the performance potential of every single employee team member.

When high performers are mismanaged, managers must be held accountable.  One cannot know the true performance potential of an employee team member without comparing their Behaviors, Values, and Personal Attributes to that of the Job Benchmark.

Questions?  866-988-RAIN (7246)

Now go Maximize Possibility.

Three Critical Success Factors of Rainmaker Sales People

We are often asked, "Why do some sales people seemingly have what it takes while others do not?"  Usually this is a question asked by an exasperated sales manager or CEO.

The "symptoms" are fairly obvious.  Twenty percent of the sales team brings in eighty percent of the results.  There is a very simple reason for this.  Some sales people are true "hunters" while others are true "farmers".  Some sales people are naturally able to identify and create new opportunities.  Others are good at maintaining the relationship.  There are also those that have no business being in sales. 

We often will sample assess a sales team's high and low performers in order to show the "spread" between the top and bottom performers.  We recently did this analysis for a sales team in the food service industry.  The difference between the top and bottom performers was almost one million dollars in the last quarter reviewed.

A million dollars in one quarter!

What would you do if you could have each sales team member bring in an additional million dollars in sales in a quarter?

Fortunately, future sales performance is HIGHLY PREDICTABLE.  There are three critical success factors that true "hunter" or "Rainmaker" sales people must have.

1.  The first most important success factor a Rainmaker sales person will have is the right Behavioral Combination.  The only way to know if a sales team member or candidate has the right Behavioral Combination is to assess it through a personality profile assessment.

Rainmaker sales professionals will have a "Behavioral Style" that has a strong propensity for Urgency, Versatility, and Frequent Change.

2.  The second most important success factor a Rainmaker sales person will have is the right Value Combination.  The only way to know if a sales team member or candidate has the right Value combination necessary for successful sales is through a personality profile assessment that actually measures values.  The problem is there are actually very few pre-employment personality profile tools out there that actually do measure values.

Rainmaker sales professionals will have "Value Patterns" that include the desire to make money, shape their destiny (and that of others), and the desire to seek the knowledge necessary to sell effectively.

3.  The third, most important success factor a Rainmaker sales professional will have is the right Personal Attributes.  Attributes such as Personal Accountability, High Empathetic Outlook, Results Orientation, Self Management, Interpersonal Skills, Goal Achievement, Customer Focus, Self Direction, Personal Drive, Persistence, and Initiative.

Can one interview candidates to identify Behaviors, Values, and Attributes?  In a nutshell, the answer would be, "No, they cannot."  The reason is human bias is conscious and subconscious.

There are those that believe they can interview candidates to identify Behaviors, Values, and Attributes.  The reality is it is impossible to do so without bias.  That is why we strongly recommend to those we serve that they use a highly-validated personality profile assessment to help cut through the human bias that we all naturally have. 

Studies show that pre-employment personality assessments in combination with the interview, references, and appropriate education/experience yield the most beneficial talent selection results.

Contact us with your questions - 866-988-RAIN (7246)...

Now Go Maximize Possibility.

The Rainmaker 'Fab Five' Blog Picks of the Week

Each week I scour the blogosphere to find five HR, leadership, and talent management posts that I found to be especially good reading and worthy of sharing with others.  Here are five blog posts that I particularly enjoyed over the week of May 3rd to May 9th, 2010.  Enjoy!

Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership: How to be Accountable and Hold Others Accountable- Accountability seems to be all the rage in recent years.  However, as is often the case with many well intentioned management ideas headed towards "buzzword" status, the meaning of accountability has become more and more ambiguous as it creeps into the everyday vernacular of today's business professionals.  Dan knows accountability when he sees it and seeks to clear the air on how to be more personally accountable and more effective in holding others accountable. 

Michelle Malay Carter, Mission Minded Management: Why You Shouldn't Hire the Best and Brightest Candidate- As a hiring manager your instinct is likely to seek out the best and most talented candidate for the position you are filling.  However, Michelle suggests that one should focus on hiring for the best fit for the position to avoid "overhiring" and creating talent management headaches down the road.  Check out her post and see what you think.

Chris Ferdinandi, Renegade HR: Improve Your Training Program in Three Easy Steps - Chris offers up three simple suggestions that could quickly improve the effectiveness of your employee training programs.

Steve Roesler, All Things Workplace: Pick the Right Audience for Your Talent - We all have a unique set of skills and talents that are sure to be valuable to others.  However, these talents are not always matched to a venue that will best allow them to shine and prosper.  Steve put out a call to everyone to recognize their own individual talents and make an effort to find the right audience to promote them to.

Kris Dunn, Fistful of Talent: Calculation of Bad Turnover - Don't Forget to Count Your Hiring Misses - Over the years, HR pros have come to realize that not all turnover is bad and that certain types of turnover can actually be beneficial to an organization's performance and bottom line (ie. poor culture fit, wrong behaviors for the job, failure to meet clearly set performance expectations).  However, Kris demands some accountability when it comes to hiring mistakes and the calculation of good turnover vs. bad turnover. 

Possibility Maximizer: Tim Sanders' Monthly E-Newsletter

Happy Friday!  This week I have a great monthly newsletter that I'd like to share with you from one of my favorite authors/speakers.  Enjoy!

The Resource: Tim Sanders' Monthly E-Newsletter

What it is:  When you sign up for Tim's newsletter, you will receive an email each month chocked full of great info and content alerting you to video clips he has released recently, what he has been blogging about lately, where he will be speaking and appearing in the near future, books that he suggests are worthy of reading, and even a couple of musical recommendations from time to time.  He also shares great business and life advice that is always timely, relevant, and actionable.

Why You Should Check it out: If you have ever had the chance to see or listen to Tim Sanders speak, or have read any of his books, you likely understand why I am such a big fan.  He is truly outstanding.  This newsletter is no exception. 

There are a lot of things that I like about Tim and his writing/speaking.  The power of his positive attitude, his compassion and desire to help others improve their lives and the world around them, and his unique insight into what it takes to be successful quickly come to mind - all of which are easily found in this monthly e-newsletter. 

In our fast paced society, a newsletter like this serves as a great way to keep up with one of today's top business thought leaders.  I highly encourage you to visit his website and sign up for his monthly newsletter - I am confident you won't be disappointed!

Check Out The Leadership Development Carnival at Great Leadership!

Dan McCarthy is hosting a robust installment of the Leadership Development Carnival at his Great Leadership blog. Head over and check it out for a superb collection of blog posts aimed at developing your leadership skills!

Dan has been so gracious as to share the hosting honors for the June carnival with us here at the Maximize Possibility blog.  Look for the next Leadership Development Carnival right here a month from now on June 6th!

Interested in submitting an article to the carnival?  Use the online submission form found here

The Rainmaker 'Fab Five' Blog Picks of the Week

There were a lot of great blog posts to hit the blogosphere this week on the topics of human resources, leadership, and talent management.  Here are five posts that I found to be particularly good reading from the week of April 26th - May 2nd, 2010.  Enjoy!

Dan Heath and Chip Heath, Fast Company: Don't Recruit Next Generation Talent, Grow It- Dan and Chip dispel a common myth about the portability of talent from organization to organization.  They uncover research that suggests, despite what is commonly believed, the ability of an individual to quickly and easily bring their talents and skills to bear with a new employer is not nearly as reliable as one would expect.  Instead of seeking to acquire new talent from competitors and outside firms, Dan and Chip recommend spending some time and effort on growing your next generation of talent.

Drea Knufken, Business Pundit: 50 Tips for Improving Productivity- Lets face it, we all have a desire to be more productive and all of us have numerous "growth opportunities" to improve on how we use the time we are granted each day.  To help in the quest to accomplish more with our limited time, Drea has rounded up a great collection of 50 tips for improving productivity - check them out!

Sharlyn Lauby, HR Bartender: The Real Reason For Exit Interviews- An exit interview offers an incredible opportunity to glean new insights into your organization's employee experience that can be used to help improve employee engagement and subsequent retention rates.  However, many organizations miss the mark when it comes to taking advantage of this opportunity to learn from its employees who have decided to move on to a new employer.  Sharlyn shares three things to think about to help improve the effectiveness of exit interviews within your organization.

Bob Sutton, Work Matters: Why Newcomers Often See Things More Clearly Than Old Hands- New hires often bring a unique and fresh perspective with them to their new place of employment.  However, their thoughts and opinions are often considered naive and discounted or disregarded altogether.  Bob makes a good argument for taking their outside perspective seriously to improve on your organization's culture.

Ann Bares, Compensation Force: Using Long Term Incentives to Retain Top Sales Performers - The world of sales is often one of short term perspectives.  Sales reps are under constant pressure to meet their sales goals in order to placate stockholders who demand results in quarter-year intervals.  Not surprisingly, compensation plans for sales reps encourage and reward short term performance.  Given the coming turnaround in the economy and the temptation for sales pros to head for "greener pastures", Ann suggests establishing long term compensation incentives to help retain your top sales performers. 

Possibility Maximizer: Leading Effectively E-Newsletter

Happy Friday!  Each week I like to share a resource that has enriched my professional life and may do the same for you.  This week I've got a great leadership newsletter for you to check out.  Enjoy!

 

The Resource:  The Center for Creative Leadership's Leading Effectively E-Newsletter

What it is: Leading Effectively is a monthly newsletter published by the well respected Center for Creative Leadership.  It seeks to help its subscribers improve their leadership and managing skills by providing leadership best practices, cutting edge leadership research, case studies and real world examples of successful leadership development, and interviews, insight, and commentary from business thought leaders. 

Why You Should Check it Out: What I like most about this newsletter is the volume and quality of the content it contains.  Each issue is jam-packed with close to ten leadership articles from business experts and thought leaders both inside of and external to the Center for Creative Leadership. 

Each month when the newsletter hits my email inbox, I am always sure to open it up and see what I can learn.  Without fail there is always something that catches my eye and is well worth taking the time to read and learn from.  This is something that is hard to say about some of the many leadership resources and newsletters that are available online today. 

The quality of the content contained in the Leading Effectively e-newsletter is superb.  Much of it is based off of thorough and quantitative research of the subject matter that gives the content solid "legs" to stand on and makes their suggestions for improving your leadership effectiveness all that more credible. 

I'm also a big fan of the newsletter's use of real life case studies that demonstrate leadership best practices in action and show how you can transfer these techniques to your organization to improve its performance. 

Bottom line - if you lead or manage people and are committed to improving your effectiveness at work, you will find value in this newsletter regardless of the size of your organization, the industry you work in, or your position on the organizational chart. 

So, head over and check it out, browse the archives of past newsletters, and if you like what you see, do what 70,000 other smart folks have already done and subscribe to the Center for Creative Leadership's Leading Effectively E-Newsletter.

Carnival of Human Resources at the Talent Junction Blog!

The latest Carnival of Human Resources is up at the Talent Junction blog - check it out for an excellent collection of HR, talent management, and leadership posts by some of the best bloggers from around the world!

 

The Rainmaker 'Fab Five' Blog Picks of the Week

Each week I like to share my top five picks for the best blog reading on the topics of leadership, human resources, and talent management.  Below are five choice blog posts from the week of April 19th - 25th, 2010 that I particularly enjoyed reading.  Enjoy!

Krista Ogburn Francis, Alive HR: Building a Culture of Employee Appreciation - Krista wonders if your employees feel appreciated or if they know they are appreciated.  It is a small difference in wording that can have a big impact on the way your team members view and feel about their organization and its managers.

Tom Peters, Little Big Things Video Series: Brand You: Build Your Legacy - Tom recognizes that it is difficult if not impossible to make each day a "masterpiece" as a famous sports coach once suggested.  However, he points out that each day has its own legacy and what you do with that legacy can have a big impact on your personal brand.

Center For Creative Leadership's April 2010 Leading Effectively e-Newsletter: What it Takes to Coach Your People- Candice Frankovelgia and the folks at the Center for Creative Leadership warn that if you aren't already being measured on your ability to coach and develop others, that that will quickly change.  Given the importance of coaching to managing the performance and development of employee team members, the CCL has identified five important elements of successful employee coaching programs and what it takes to effectively address each of these elements. 

Lorrie Lykins,  Institute For Corporate Productivity Trendwatcher: Strategies of Successful HR Executives- Ever wondered what it is that makes those uniquely effective and influential HR executives as successful as they are.  So have the folks at I4CP.  Lorrie reports on a recent survey of successful HR executives that looks at the common traits, skills, and backgrounds that many high ranking human resources executives share.

Sean Conrad, Profitability Through Human Capital: 6 Reason Why Talent Management is a Strategic Imperative - The term talent management has grown more and more common in the business vernacular - even in functions outside of human resources.  Whenever a new business practice or theory gains widespread attention, it is important to educate others as to why it is strategically important to the performance of your organization to help gain critical buy-in.  Sean provides six reasons why talent management is a strategic imperative.

Possibility Maximizer: Monster.com's HR People

At the end of every business week I like to feature a resource that I have found to be a valuable addition to my professional life and one that I hope will benefit your life at work as well. This week I will be revisiting a great resource I had highlighted about a year and a half ago that has undergone considerable changes and improvements.  Enjoy!

The Resource:  Monster.com's HR People - The Resource Behind Human Resources

What it Covers:  Shortly after I first featured the resource formerly known as HRGuru.com it was acquired by HR People which in turn had recently been acquired by Monster.com .  Since the transition from HR Guru to HR People many things have changed with this resource, but the core of what makes this site so great has stayed the same. 

It is still a highly interactive community of HR and business professionals that allows users to research and collaborate on a wide range of human resources topics such as: job descriptions, salary levels, hiring and recruiting best practices, employee development, HR law and policy, performance management, and just about anything else you can imagine that falls under the umbrella of HR or talent management. 

What has changed is the large number of features that have been added to this community site since its acquisition by Monster and HR People.  Now you'll be able to browse an extensive collection of business book reviews, search for careers in HR and post your own job openings in front of a targeted audience, download educational whitepapers and research reports,  watch instructional videos, and even upload your own content for others to view and enjoy. 

Why You Should Check it Out: Immediately upon visiting this site you will recognize the wealth of knowledge and information that is available for discovery.  With such a large community of HR professionals who frequent the site, the knowledge pool is almost infinite as each member has the opportunity to bring their own unique background, experience, and perspective to the site to share with others and add to the conversation. 

I also really like that HR People offers the opportunity to share your content with others.  One of the things that I have found most beneficial from writing this blog is how it has helped me to learn more and more about the world of HR, leadership development, and talent management and progressed my own professional development.  I believe you will find similar benefits by becoming an active member of HR People and posting your own thoughts and ideas for others to read and comment on. 

Being owned by Monster.com also has its advantages as the resources it has allocated to this site are clearly evident and nicely integrated with the other great resources Monster has to offer.  Many of the features that made HR Guru such a great community have been preserved, streamlined, and improved upon to provide an exceptional user experience. 

Membership is free and the learning opportunities are almost limitless, so what are you waiting for?  Head over and check out HR People today!

The Rainmaker 'Fab Five' Blog Picks of the Week

Every week I like to round up five blog posts that I found to be especially good reading over the past week.  Below are five posts I recommend checking out from the week of April 12th - 18th, 2010.  Enjoy!

Roland Smith, Wall Street Journal Online: The Five Mistakes You're Making With Top Talent- It is no secret that talent management blunders abound in today's business world.  However, these mistakes can be especially costly when it come to your high potential employee team members.  Roland clues you in on five mistakes you may be making with your "Hi-Pos" and what you can do to avoid them in the future.

Steven Reid, HRM Today: 5 Talent Management Practices that Support High Performance- More and more managers and HR professionals are becoming familiar and comfortable with basic talent management tactics and strategies.  Steven encourages you to move beyond the basics and shares five talent management practices that will foster greater performance in your organization.

Rob Tucker, Reading About Leading: Experiment! - While experience and experiment are very similar semantically, Rob argues the difference between the two couldn't be greater when it comes to your professional and leadership development.  He urges you to take a more active role in your development by learning from purposeful workplace experiments as opposed to passively learning from experience.

Derek Irvine, Globoforce: How Do You Know Your Recognition Program Is Succeeding?- Derek raises attention to an alarming disconnect in organizational knowledge flow that can hinder managers from accurately measuring the success of their employee recognition program. 

Michael McKinney, Leadership Now:  Does Your Leadership Have "White Space"? - Most of us are familiar with the concept of "white space" derived from the fields of marketing and graphical design.  However, you may not have thought of this concept as a metaphor for leadership.  Michael explores this leadership metaphor and challenges you to create adequate white space in your team or organization to encourage your employees to reach their full potential.

Possibility Maximizer: iFractal / KnowHR's Book Club

Every Friday I like to feature a resource that I feel will add value to your professional and/or personal life.  This week I've got a new and exciting resource that was just released and which I have high hopes will be one worth following for many months and years to come.  Enjoy!

 
The Resource: iFractal / KnowHR's Book Club

What it Covers:The smart folks at iFractal and the KnowHR blog have a bookshelf full of great reads that they'd like to share with you.  Each month they'll dip into their library of management, leadership, and HR books to choose a timely and relevant title to suggest reading and schedule a date to later meet up and discuss. 

Why You Should Check it Out:  I feel strongly that regular reading of books, whitepapers, blogs, industry reports, etc. is a great way to "sharpen your saw" as Stephen Covey would say.  In today's hyper-competitive business world, there simply isn't room to sit still and rely and what you already know.  Rather you must continually strive to expand your knowledge and expertise in order to Maximize Possibility in your organization and your professional life. 

However, simply reading a great book or a provocative blog post isn't always enough.  Often, the most meaningful learning comes through discussions with others who have also read the material and bring their own unique background and perspective to the conversation. 

You'll be amazed at the things you might never have thought of or considered when discussing a great book with a friend or colleague and how much it can add to your reading enjoyment and learning experience.  This is exactly the sort of environment that a book club fosters, and I couldn't be more excited that the folks at iFractal are exploring this as a venue to help others realize their potential at work. 

This is a new feature from iFractal (the club was just announced this April), but don't think just because they are an HR communication consultancy and the brains behind a blog called KnowHR that they will be getting together to discuss books about pointless HR policies or how to "beef-up" your employee handbook.  Not a chance of it.  For starters, the first book they'll explore is Stick: How to Change When Change is Hard - a powerful book by Dan and Chip Heath that isn't directly geared towards HR pros, but has tremendous applications nonetheless.  This, I would argue, is exactly what HR needs to be doing... Getting outside their comfort zone, exploring areas outside the HR world, and having discussions with other smart people about how they can apply the principles and concepts of a great book (or blog, white paper, survey, report, etc) to their position within their organization.

The iFractal book club is currently formatted as a typical book club that meets live in person (in the Philadelphia area), but in the comments to their announcement Frank Roche teased the idea of taking it online via Skype (or perhaps some other online interactive format).  I'm really hopeful they do take it online to expand the reach of the club and encourage even more diversity in thoughts, opinions, and professional backgrounds. 

If you live in the Philadelphia area, you won't want to miss out on this incredible opportunity to expand your knowledge base and meet other smart folks committed to Maximizing Possibility in their lives.  Even if that isn't an option, you'll want to stay tuned to the KnowHR blog to get their monthly reading recommendations. 

Now go Maximize Possibility!

The I'm So Corporate Carnival of HR is Here!

 
Sarah White from the I'm So Corporate blog is hosting the latest installment of the Carnival of Human Resources.  Head over and check it out for an excellent collection of 30 posts to improve your HR, leadership, and talent management skills!

The Rainmaker 'Fab Five' Blog Picks of the Week

I like to kick off each week with five blog posts that I especially enjoyed reading over the past week.  Here is my top five for the week of April 5th - 11th, 2010.  Enjoy!

Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership: The Myth of Perfect Productivity - Wally rejects the myth of so-called "perfect productivity" and suggests that "wasting time" at work is part of being human.  Furthermore, he suggests that this time isn't really wasted when we are building relationships with others or thinking up creative new solutions to problems, as these are often the moments when we are most creative.

Laurie Ruettimann, Punk Rock HR: The Candidate Experience & Hiring Process - Laurie is appalled at the results of a recent Right Management survey that reports 60% of job candidates are subjected to three or more interviews before being offered the position.  She thinks it is time to start paying attention to the candidates' experience in the hiring process and puts the pressure on recruiters to "get things right" when it comes to hiring the best talent.

Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership: Leaders, Be an "Undercover Customer" - Taking a page out of the recent "reality" television show Undercover Boss, Dan thinks leaders should go "undercover" as a customer of their organization to get a better feel for the problems and frustrations they may encounter using their product or service, and goes on to share his experience of doing just this with a previous employer. 

Dr. Jason E. Taylor, The Recruiters Lounge: Performance Based Interviews That Identify The Game Changers in Your Candidate Pool- Guest author Dr. Taylor wants to help you identify the rockstars in your candidate pool by using a performance based interview that examines the performance metrics a position is responsible for and pairing them with behavioral traits that are conducive to delivering those results.  After this is done you'll be able to probe deeper into a candidate's behavioral tendencies to determine if any behavioral mis-matches can be overcome or if they will turn out to be deal breakers. 

Kris Dunn, HR Capitalist: 10 Bitchin' Facts About Jack Welch- It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Jack Welch.  That said how can I resist featuring a post like this from HR Capitalist Kris Dunn.  Check out his list of 10 "bitchin' facts" about Jack Welch for a good laugh to start off your week!

Possibility Maximizer: Tom Peters Little Big Things Video Series

Every Friday I like to highlight a resource that I feel will add value to your life at work and improve your professional effectiveness.  This week I've got a powerful series of video clips from one of my favorite business authors: Tom Peters. Enjoy!

 
The Resource: Tom Peters' Little Big Things Video Series

What it Covers: Little Big Things is a series of short videos (less than five minutes long) that Tom has recorded and shared with us via YouTube and his website featuring discussions on topics from his latest book - Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence. So far Peters has posted close to 20 videos that explore a variety of ways to pursue excellence both personally and professionally including servant leadership, personal branding, innovation, performance management, and thriving during the recession - just to name a few.

Why You Should Check it Out: Given the rave reviews Tom Peters' latest book has gotten (and the ones I have given his previous works), it should come as no surprise that I am excited to recommend this resource and am confident it can add tremendous value to your life at work.  He is an excellent storyteller and has no problem communicating a clear and powerful message in these very short video segments. 

Also, I love being able to watch Tom speak about the topics from his book in a video format as it really allows his wisdom and experience to come to life from the pages of his Little Big Things book.  If you've read the book, these video clips are a great complement to his material and serve as an excellent way to quickly revisit his suggestions whenever you are in need of an infusion of excellence. 

Not big on online video?  No problem - Tom has made transcripts of his videos available for download as a PDF that you can save and read whenever is most convenient for you. 

Little Big Things are released weekly on Tom's website and his YouTube channel and by the looks of things there are many more great videos yet to come.  Head over and check it out today, or better yet, subscribe to Tom's YouTube feed and you'll get these powerful shots of excellence delivered directly to your inbox each week!

Videos You May Enjoy:

• Servant Leadership
• Be Extraordinary
• The Importance of Choosing Front-Line Supervisors
• Don't Fear Failure
• Brand You Thought: Work on Your Writing

In Case You Missed It... Blog Carnivals Galore!

Two great blog carnivals came out over the past couple days...

Lexi Ruben has taken the reins for the latest Carnival of Human Resources  hosted at the Precept Employee Benefits blog and Sharyln Lauby - your very own HR Bartender - is guest hosting the Leadership Development Carnival.

Go check them both out for a great collection of HR, talent management, and leadership development posts!