With the economy being what it is, everybody is concerned about getting value for the dollar. The days of shareholders rubber stamping management plans, particularly about executive compensation, are over. Stockholders want to make sure that every dollar spent is an investment in future earnings – not a cost. The world is changing and everybody wants transparency and accountability. See my post in Talent Management Magazine about CitiGroup shareholders.
‘Leadership’ Articles
Women (and Men) in the C-Suite
Messages about how women can rise to the top shouldn’t be delivered only to women. Men and women both need to understand and embrace the skill sets they were predisposed to, and those they learned along the way, to stand tall in the board room, equally. In this recent blog post for Talent Management, Aubrey challenges readers to learn from each other while not losing or changing the things that make each gender unique.
Use your Mega-Millions Jackpot to Fix the NCAA?
ADI guest blogger
Tom Spencer took his thoughts to Talent Management today where he plotted to fix NCAA officiating with his expected Mega Millions winnings. Quickly discovering that his plot would reward the wrong behavior, he offers tips to avoid the same misfortune in your organization.
You don’t have to show them the money because it is not about the money!
A colleague, Tyler, asked me the other day during a discussion about the pay for performance bounty escapade, “What is $1000 to a millionaire?” That is like saying to your buddy at the bar, “Betcha a dollar.” The supposed $10,000 bounty on Bret Favre would have been like the average person winning $100 bucks. What makes even less sense is that, under revised hitting guidelines, most plays that “knock players out of games” constitute an “illegal” hit which usually results in a $25,000+ fine-chump change to a multimillionaire. No, it wasn’t about the money. Too bad former Saints Defensive Coach Williams didn’t understand that. He could have saved some money. If it wasn’t about the money, what was it? The players had to know that Williams’ pay-for-performance scheme was against the rules, so why risk the negative consequences of getting caught breaking the rules if it wasn’t about the money?
It was about positive reinforcement and lots of it.
One thing that the “pay for performance bounty” did was to focus reinforcement on activities that would likely hurt a player to the extent that he would have to leave the game. To understand the sources of reinforcement, all you had to do was watch the reaction of the player as he raised his hands triumphantly after the hit. Watch the other players as they jumped on him giving him approving hand gestures. Listen to the team fans as they cheered loudly and approvingly. Watch as the player returned to the sidelines as the other players on the bench greeted and congratulated him. Watch Williams as the player came off the field. Oh I am sure that none of the players refused the money but I suggest it was more like a trophy than cash that they would spend after practice. It would not surprise me if some of the players had the money framed and hung on the wall at home.
I am glad to see that the league is taking this seriously as it is still in the news and being investigated several weeks after the scandal was reported. I am still worried that those who were not directly involved, like Head Coach Sean Payton and the Saints GM, receive consequences that will cause them to stop this kind of behavior. I doubt that they will. In my opinion they have had serious lapses of judgment in their decision-making. Unethical behavior is difficult to change and a monetary penalty or suspension from the sidelines for a few games will have little effect. Barring the team from the playoffs might get their attention but I think that will still have minimal effect on their judgment of what behavior constitutes fair play when they get out of “the penalty box.” Speaking of which, why not eject a player from the game when he has the second illegal hit in a game or when he has more than three or four in a season.
Football is fun and exciting because the league is a stickler for abiding by the rules. What constitutes where the ball is placed, when the knee is on the ground, whether both feet were in bounds and the ball under control are all determined as precisely as the replay and camera angles can detect. What constitutes fair competition and the penalties that will stop it should be taken just as seriously. Can it really be fun to win an athletic competition by cheating?
Full disclosure and transparency requires me to say that as a die-hard Atlanta Falcons fan, “I knew they cheated.”
For more on this topic, read my latest Talent Management blog: Bounty scandal gives pay-for-performance a bad name.
Productive Plan for 99ers
I happened to catch the Platform to Employment segment on 60 Minutes this week and couldn’t help but applaud! Now this is a productive plan. This non-profit has gone well above and beyond typical outsourcing activities to develop and support a program for those who are still deeply affected by unemployment and have tried, with no success, to secure a job on their own. Referred to as 99ers, these are the very capable unemployed whose benefits have been extended for up to 99 weeks and whose personal self-worth can be described as dismal. For most, they see their skills becoming less relevant, their once vibrant careers slipping steadily away, and their financial net worth eroded.
Platform to Employment (P2E) was developed by The WorkPlace, an incorporated group that supports, collaborates and advocates for workforce development regionally in Connecticut, as well as nationally by sharing best practices and lessons learned. With a tagline of think it forward it’s no wonder this group has innovatively found a way to get Americans feeling more productive, confident, and self-sufficient.
In effect, this program can be compared to pay for performance only its performance for employment. Folks who participate are taken through three tiers of support: Tier One – job readiness; Tier Two – emotional readiness; Tier Three – 8 week work experience. During the first two tiers of the program, those who have struggled with unemployment and have heard ‘no’ more times than we can think are coached and trained back from the social, emotional, and technical deficiencies they felt as a result of their long term unemployment status. Most importantly, the emphasis is put on improving performance, managing change, problem solving, and effective communication. They are essentially being taught how to be the best employee they can be, in spite of their past circumstances.
The final phase is where performance for employment comes in. P2E secures an eight week work-for-hire, matching companies who are looking for skilled candidates. By reducing the risk of the hiring company, candidates have the opportunity to earn a position by performing their way to employment.
I applaud the companies that have stepped up to participate in getting Americans back to work, and to P2E for their innovative program. I hope to see P2E replicated all over the country in months to come.
Don’t Fear Change
I hope you find comfort in my latest Talent Management blog post where I explain why we shouldn’t fear change. In this post, I also debunk the myths that surround it and discuss ways you can achieve meaningful change in yourself and in others.
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Why Wall Street won’t ever change their spending ways
I’m going to get right to the point. I have little faith that Wall Street will ever get smarter about how they spend their money. The reality is they have too much of other people’s money and deal in such large amounts day to day that they will never take seriously the efficiency and effectiveness of their own management systems. They have seen good times and bad. While they are talking about making dramatic changes now, history has proven that they will only be temporary. Even though they are in a position now where their financial belts will have to be tightened, it will be only for a short time because when the economy improves they will return to their spendthrift ways. Why? Because they don’t know any better and since they are in the business of selling money have come to believe that money will solve their problems only if it is given in large amounts. It is an environment where $100,000 is considered “chump change.”
What prompted this blog was an article in Bloomberg News titled, “Wall Street Mulls Partial Pay Freeze” by Jeffery McCracken and Christine Harper. They talk about the fact that revenues in the investment-banking business have been so bad that they might have to resort to eliminating the practice of boosting pay automatically each year. They quote Joseph Sorrentino of Steven Hall & Partners, an executive-compensation consultancy who said, “Pay increases have been traditionally automatic because there are traditionally very long hours in terms of the amount of work and this is another way to try to boost their morale and signify that they’re a strong part of the firm and that they’re appreciated.” This quote cracks me up because it shows the almost total lack of understanding of the laws of behavior.
I can assure you that Mr. Sorrentino has no data showing that the way these investment banking firms structure bonuses improves junior bankers’ performance, retention or morale. It is naïve to think that you can treat people poorly day to day, give them money at the end of the year and think that will create the feeling that “they’re a strong part of the firm and that they’re appreciated.”
The reason these firms can get away with wasting millions of compensation dollars is because practically every company in the industry is using the same poor uninformed compensation practices. Therefore, no firm has an advantage or disadvantage. The customer pays the freight.
If these firms ever get to a point where they must operate in a more sound way financially, I can suggest several things.
- Every problem cannot be solved with money, even on Wall Street. What causes people to quit and go to another company is more about the way they are managed than the money they make. If employees are treated poorly, they will leave for a dollar more. If they are treated well, it will take a lot more to hire them away. Make no mistake, loyalty cannot be bought. Big bonuses have often helped a disaffected employee start a competitive company or retire early.
- Bonuses that are not earned, more often than not, do not strengthen productive behavior because that is not the contingency involved in receiving the bonus. While upper management believes that annual bonuses increase loyalty and performance, they do neither because they don’t have to be loyal or productive to receive one. They have to do just enough to stay on the payroll. Of course management doesn’t believe this because if they did, they would make immediate changes where nothing would be automatic that was not individually earned. A system where employees knew the personal accomplishments they had to achieve to earn the money would be far superior and less costly.
- Forget what rival firms do. Focus on promoting to management only those who have good social skills and an understanding of the science of behavior. Pinpoint the behaviors and results that are valuable and generously reinforce those behaviors and reward those who produce the results. That way, the only thing that executives will have to “mull over” will be how to spend the money that is left over.
Ethical Lessons for Every Workplace
The recent scandals at Penn State and Syracuse have ignited larger concern over whether or not organizations devote the proper attention and care to building ethical structures in their workplace. My colleague, and ADI President and CEO, Darnell Lattal, was interviewed recently for both Training Magazine and Talent Management as she has written extensively on the topic of Ethics at work. I encourage all to read and consider how behavioral science should be used to ensure that your organization builds an “ethical infrastructure” that defines, measures, and reinforces ethical behavior.
How to Kick Start Your Career
There is no better way to start out the New Year than to be invited to CNN. I had the pleasure of sharing some tips for kick starting your career for the New Year. Whether you are looking for advancement or still seeking employment in this difficult business climate, I hope this CNN video offers you some ideas for making the most of your career and finding the positives in your work environment.
Improving Post-Accident Behavior
Predictability is one word you could use to describe an organizations reaction after an accident. It is quite common for organizations to jump to some kind of response after an incident or accident has occurred. But do they always do the right thing? In the latest video blog, Dr. Judy Agnew examines what typically occurs in the aftermath of an accident and why organizations should turn instead to more proactive measures of safety to better avoid the potential for future problems.
See also: BBS Basics Instructor Start-Up Package and BBS Orientation Booklet