1486 Posts Found

It shouldn’t be a big surprise that leader behaviors that make work groups or organizational units more successful are not perfectly correlated with the behaviors that make leaders individually more successful. Organizational performance and leader career outcomes are imperfectly correlated.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Career, Human Resources, Leadership

In medicine and, for that matter, other disciplines such as engineering, we demand expertise and try as best we can to assess whether or not people know what they are doing and talking about. In leadership, a good story coupled with enough self-assurance is often sufficient.

Therefore, in the domain of leadership development, where interventions as frequently measured by their entertainment value and with no science … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Expertise, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

Measures signal what is deemed important inside companies, because what is measured must be, almost by definition, important—just for the very fact of it being measured. Conversely, what is neglected by measures is, by inference, unimportant. Measures focus people’s attention. Measures typically drive rewards and reinforcement, because performance on measures has consequences for people’s raises, promotions, and job tenure. Therefore, and it should come as … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Management, Measurement, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

Changing the way executives in professional service firms are compensated can help organizations address some tough organizational dilemmas.

Content: Article | Author: Olivier Chatain | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

Successfully competing for top talent involves both selling jobs to the best candidates and retaining the highest performing incumbents. In order to be seen as an employer of choice with a compelling value proposition for employees, many companies measure turnover and conduct exit interviews with departing employees to gather feedback about the experiences people had working there and the reasons why they’re leaving. But a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Benjamin Dattner | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Human Resources

In domains like music, sports, where there’s a lot of individual training, you see the ratio between training and performance. You probably perform less than 1% of the time that you spent training. Whereas in business, it’s more like 99% performance and 1% training.

Content: Quotation | Author: Anders Ericsson | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Career, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development, Training & Development

Three things I’ve learned from closing a candidate: 1) Get an idea of strong candidate’s dealbreakers (e.g. compensation, timing, responsibilities) early and work to mitigate these with each round of interviews. 2) Be willing to pay up for strong candidates; the short hit in budget will be paid back many times over. Furthermore, fight internally to get that candidate vetted as quickly as possible so … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Tim Chen | Source: Medium | Subject: Human Resources

Because you may have a long list of candidates, you should batch calls as often as possible. For example, set aside 15 minute segments in a 3 hour block daily. In a first-pass, I always ask: 1) “Walk me through your resume”, to understand if the candidate is actually interested in a startup via a clear story, or just shotgunning their resume; 2) “If you … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Tim Chen | Source: Medium | Subject: Human Resources

You think you’ve found the right candidate to fill your open position and now it’s time to check references. What’s the best way to get the information you need? Should you ask each person the same questions? What do you read—if anything—into the tone of their voice? And how do you overcome the fact that so many companies only allow you to talk to HR … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Rebecca Knight | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Human Resources

Once you’ve pulled the trigger and hired salespeople you like, your entire focus needs to be on getting them up to speed as fast as you can. Here are actions all B2B startups can take to build not only the most talented sales team, but the best-prepared sales battery possible.

Content: Article | Author: Pete Kazanjy | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Marketing / Sales

One of the risks of using motivation and discipline as single bullet strategies is that none of us is disciplined in every part of our lives. Neither are we motivated all of the time. And yet we rely on these two psychological factors to drive engagement and performance.

A better option, in our opinion, is to utilize design over discipline. What this means is, designing systems … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Dan Gregory, Kieran Flanagan | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

Companies spend billions annually training their executives, yet rarely realize all the benefit they could, argue Michael Beer and colleagues. He discusses a new research paper, “The Great Training Robbery.”

Content: Article | Author: Michael Beer | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Human Resources

We tend to hire people on the “hard” (IQ and experience) but fire them for their failure to master the “soft.” References are one of the best ways to assess the latter.

Content: Quotation | Author: Claudio Fernández-Aráoz | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Human Resources

Pete Kazanjy discusses a recruiting strategy for bringing aboard energized, motivated salespeople who produced, including the mistakes he made and has seen other organizations make, and — most importantly — how to find and close the candidates that will make or break your ability to sell your product.

Content: Article | Author: Pete Kazanjy | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Human Resources, Marketing / Sales

Instead of dealing with talent shortage, many oil and gas companies are now juggling a surplus of labor. Rapid performance management systems can help address near-term workforce needs as well as build stronger organizations.

Editor’s Note: although ostensibly focused on the oil and gas industry, the four-step framework provided is relevant to any large organization.

Content: Article | Authors: Christopher Handscomb, Laura Borland, Mark Dominik | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Leaders want to get better in the here-and-now, not to be judged against a competency map or be sold an abstract theory about what leadership should look like. If you want to become a great leader, become a student of your context — understand your organization’s social system — and mind your routines. Leadership development is more about application than theory.

Content: Quotation | Author: Todd Warner | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Leadership, Personal Development, Training & Development

Individuals can make a difference in an organization, but a social system — particularly in large organizations — is always stronger. Fundamentally, organizations domesticate people—they condition people to work in certain ways, and they inadvertently perpetuate the status quo. People get tagged as “talented” when they fit in (or pretend to). This ends up exacerbating conformity and fear, and perpetuating the very problems that the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Todd Warner | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

After product market fit, nothing is more important to growth than hiring the right people. The right people grow your startup exponentially – the wrong ones stunt growth. To get that exponential growth, you need a recruiting strategy that provides a steady pipeline of people ready to jump aboard when you post your jobs. I’ve put together 19 tips to help you build a strategy … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Adam Seabrook | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Human Resources

Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli has spent decades studying the complicated dynamics of employment. In a post-recession world, his research is more timely than ever as companies large and small struggle to adapt to a new normal that relies on fewer employees handling a larger, shifting workload. One practice that has persisted in this changing business landscape is the ubiquitous performance evaluation, which Cappelli describes … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Peter Cappelli | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Human Resources, Management

Brad Feld offers simple but useful advice on hiring for senior leadership positions in a fast-growing startup.

Content: Article | Author: Brad Feld | Source: Feld Thoughts | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Human Resources