March 2010 — 5 Early Warning Signs of Manager Derailment

March is typically a hopeful time as we continue to move forward into what we hope will be a promising year. Spring is around the corner, which brings new growth and opportunities to feel refreshed. Even as Washington continues to get bogged down in partisanship, the real leaders in our industry are not waiting on legislation to make us stronger. Real leadership is setting vision, casting hope and not letting anything prevent us from achieving success for our organizations. Our legacy is determined by how we inspire and influence our followers to charge ahead.

A significant part of that legacy rest upon our deeply held convictions that employee creativity and innovation have a direct impact on the bottom-line. The Harbour Resources team remains committed to delivering “A” talent, leadership development programs, consulting, assessments and resources that help our clients make that vital connection between employee engagement and profitability.

In this newsletter, you will find ideas on preparing for the hiring/retiring surge, employee engagement, management derailers, self development and leadership enhancement. So ENJOY! And as always we welcome your feedback or questions.

The Impending War for Talent

Recent reports have suggested that there are fresh signs of an economic recovery taking shape but employers are still facing one of the greatest management challenges of the last two decades – employee engagement.

A new Conference Board survey recently found that 55% of all employees are unhappy with their jobs. This is the lowest level researchers have seen in 22 years. No doubt some of the dissatisfaction can be traced in part to the challenging economic conditions of the past year. But upon digging deeper the Conference Board noted that: The greatest level of dissatisfaction was found among workers under the age of 25, who are members of Generation Y.

The fact that Millennial employees are expressing very high levels of frustration doesn’t bode well for employers, particularly as the recession may be easing. After all, 80 million well-educated, tech-savvy Millennials represent the future of most organizations, both as prospective employees and potential customers. But a workforce riddled with frustrated Millennials could lead to a loss of productivity, resulting in workplace dissension and costly turnover. Worse, as the economy gains strength these younger employees could be the first to jump ship looking for more satisfying employment.

But as the battle to attract, hire or retain talented, promotable Millennials begins to heat up, many employers could find themselves unarmed!

It’s always important to have the right tools to do the job, and every employer’s arsenal should include tested and validated assessments to guide hiring, training and promotion decisions. Armed with these instruments, leaders will be able to:

• Hire the right person for the right job
• Build and lead effective teams
• Improve the performance of every employee
• Develop effective strategies for managing talent

These decisions and strategies can’t be left to chance, either. Only proven assessments can yield the sort of deep insights into human nature that can guide critical choices successfully.

Harbour Resources team of consultants, have access to the most sophisticated instruments available, and can employ powerful tools that will help you understand why your people think and behave the way they do. It’s much like having a window into an employee’s heart and mind. This may prove particularly valuable to supervisors with Millennial employees, who can often seem like a mystery and challenge.

Plus, using validated instruments is an approach that is appealing to supervisors and employees alike.For line supervisors having the keys to employee motivation in their hands takes the guesswork out of employee motivation and communication. Employees, in turn, stand to gain a greater sense of job satisfaction and a better understanding of their role in the organization. And the organizations itself experiences increased productivity, reduced conflict and a positive impact on the bottom line.

To learn more about how your organization can benefit by arming itself with valid and powerful assessment tools, visit Harbour Assessments or give us a call at 501.225.3359.

A Career Built on Ideas that Help Businesses Reach Their Peak Performance…

article reprint from Success Magazine, Jim Collins Interview

“You can either follow a paint-by-numbers-kit approach to life and do what everybody thinks you should do and stay within the accepted lines,” says Collins, “or you can decide you want to create a masterpiece and start with a blank canvas. It might not ever turn into a masterpiece, but the only way you can hope for a masterpiece is starting with a blank canvas.”

Continue Article

How to Improve Corporate Culture

by Vistage, The Worlds Leading Chief Executive Organization

Company culture-an organization’s attitudes, beliefs, actions and values-develops out of the actions and inactions of the company leaders. Culture can’t be changed by creating new policies, sending out memos or asking ground-level employees to change their actions or attitudes. When leaders adopt a clear behavioral leadership strategy, they can overcome workplace culture issues that don’t serve the goals of the organization.

Continue Article

Leader Lights

“Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.”          — Warren Bennis

“The most critical thing I think business leaders and future business leaders need to understand is to stay focused on the things that you can control and influence, and then execute, execute, execute.”                                 — John Chambers, Cisco CEO

“As a coach, your high standards of performance, attention to detail and-above all-how hard you work set the stage for how your players perform.”     — Don Shula, Football Coach

Our New Study This Month: 5 Early Warning Signs of Manager Derailment

This is the month of Superstars and best hiring practices. We suggest deliberate action instead of acting on impulse when faced with hiring or promotional decisions. This month’s content will enable you to identify and place employees in the most appropriate position to ensure productivity.

Request the Report Here

Times of change present many challenges throughout organizations – especially front-line managers who need to implement change through their people and do more with less.

Ironically, when you need your managers to perform at their very best they are the most vulnerable to buckling under the pressure.

Spot the advance warning signs that could prevent your managers from failing by requesting our new study, 5 Critical Management Derailers, covering:

• Poor interpersonal and communication skills
• Ineffective team leaders
• Resistance to change
• Disappointing results
• Inability to see beyond their functional silo

“The higher managers rise in an organization, the more likely they are to develop blind spots to the danger signs that signal they are at a high risk of failing.”

Click below to request the report

Request the Report Here

Our JOB as leaders is to identify the blind spots in our people and develop leaders who can influence and drive change in and through our organizations.

Now let’s go Make It Happen!!!

Mike Harbour
Harbour Resources

Recruiting, Assessing and Developing leadership talent for healthcare organizations is our ONLY business

100% of the time we deliver 2 to 4 “A” players for your search