Why Empathy Drives Business

"Successful business leaders are receptive to disruption and innately aware of what is going on in their organizations both internally and externally".  Jason Boyer writes in Forbes.com about the trait of empathy, and how great leaders use it to have a 360 vision around their organization.

Jason notes that when businesses fail it is often because leaders are insulated from their own operations. What do you think?  I know of a plant manager who walked every inch of the manufacturing facility at least once a week - going into places and talking with shift workers who in the past didn't get a chance to talk to management. He was very visible to all employees and clearly made it a priority to do so.

Why Empathy Is The Force That Moves Business Forward

Business success depends on empathetic leaders who are able to adapt, build on the strengths around them, and relate to their environment. When businesses fail, it is often because leaders have stopped focusing on understanding their environment intimately and instead stay insulated in their own operations. Successful business leaders are receptive to disruption and innately aware of what is going on in their organizations both internally and externally.

Empathy must be the driving force behind business communication. Unfortunately, I have seen many situations in which people talk at each other, instead of making a concerted effort to listen and discover opportunities for collaboration. The catalyst for change is open, two-way communication.
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Jayson M. Boyers is the executive director of the Division of Continuing Professional Studies at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont

HireQuality provides Recruitment, Talent Management, and Management Coaching services to meet your organizations needs. Call us at 416.413.1177 or visit our website for more information.

Giving a TED styled presentation - Executive Coaching

Chris Anderson is a curator at TED, the non-profit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Two times a year, TED hosts a conference of invited speakers from around the world, speakers who have a powerful story to tell about Technology, Entertainment, and Design. They have 18 minutes to present to the world and speak about their ideas or work in the most engaging way possible.

The technology of the presentation doesn't take over, some speakers talk with no materials or slides at all. In this month's Harvard Business Review, Chris discusses the secrets behind giving an effective TED style talk, How to Give a Killer Presentation.

Very few of us will be invited to the TED stage, but many of the ideas in this article can be applied to any type of talk you need to give in your organization, because it's not about the scale of the audience, but about the way you deliver your message.

How to Give a Killer Presentation - by Chris Anderson [Harvard Business Review]

HireQuality provides Recruitment, Talent Management, and Management Coaching services to meet your organizations needs. Call us at 416.413.1177 or visit our website for more information.

Effective Managers Cultivate These Skills..

If you were to make a list of 5 or so skills needed by business managers, your list might include; inter-personal skills, creativity, ability to multi-task, but I wonder if your list would contain these two important skills, discussed by Daniel Burrus, in his recent post, "What Should Today’s Executives and Managers Really Be Managing?"

Daniel, founder and CEO of Burrus Research, and author of Flash Foresight, suggests that effective managers take time to manage how others view themselves and their team, and screen out noise to make room for downtime.

"As an executive or leader in your organization, you’re managing many things: the company’s image, numerous projects, and a talented group of people. But you’re also managing many other important things, including the perception others have of you and your department, how distracted you and your team are on a daily basis, and many other things you may not even be aware of."

Burrus expands on the skill of managing distractions, "One thing we know for sure is that most distractions or changes come from the outside in—external factors impact the organization. This causes people to react, crisis manage, and continually put out fires. But to be a strategic asset to your company, you can’t simply be a crisis manager; you also have to become an opportunity manager. The question is, how do you do that? The answer is to become an opportunity manager and plug into the future. To be an opportunity manager and strategic asset for your organization, distraction is the enemy. To provide major new competitive advantage and to create new products, markets, and services, distraction is the enemy. Unfortunately, we have never been more distracted."

Please read the full article: source: Daniel Burrus, LinkedIn Influencer Post

HireQuality provides Recruitment, Talent Management, and Management Coaching services to meet your organizations needs. Call us at 416.413.1177 or visit our website for more information.

Do You Have an Employee Recognition Program or a Culture of Recognition?

According to the CEO Institute, business leaders identified employee engagement and staff recruitment among their top concerns last year. Acquiring and retaining talent gives organizations the strategic competitive advantage they're looking for in this highly competitive economy.

In this months issues of Talent Management magazine, Derek Irvine, VP of Client Strategy for Globoforce, writes about Globoforce's 2012 Survey of Employee Recognition programs.

The Survey found that companies with a strategic employee recognition program in place, had a 23% lower turn-over rate than companies with no programs. Data also showed that the most successful employee recognition programs were aligned with corporate objectives and were peer-to-peer based. Budget was a factor, but Derek points out, "cash is not the currency of employee recognition, and it generally leads to entitlement rather than motivation."

A strategic employee recognition program can contribute to the positive culture of an organization. It can engage employees, and when employees are enabled to achieve goals they are less likely to leave. The Towers Watson Report calls this the power of threes. Companies successful at engaging, enabling and energizing employees have 3 times higher operating margins that those with low engagement.

Derek sums up, "Giving all employees the empowerment and ability to recognize and reward their colleagues for company values is the difference between a recognition program and a culture of recognition."

HireQuality provides Recruitment, Talent Management, and Management Coaching services to meet your organizations needs. Call us at 416.413.1177 or visit our website for more information.

source: Recognition to the Rescue, Derek Irvine, VP of Client Strategy, Globoforce, [Talent Management, May 2013]

Studies Demonstrate the ROI Benefits of Executive Coaching

Would your organization benefit from Executive Coaching? A survey of 100 executives of Fortune 1000 companies reported corporate benefits such as; improvements to customer service and bottom line results, as well as individual benefits; improved working relationships and increased job satisfaction. Studies estimate an expected ROI of 500 - 600%.

With high ROIs and other inter-personal communication benefits, difficult to quantify but essential to a healthy corporate work environment, it is something to think about and consider for your company. HireQuality provides exceptional consulting services for Executive Coaching. Call us at 705.734.2698 or contact us through our website.

Perth, WA, April 23, 2013
source: PR Wire

"Many studies have been conducted in an attempt to determine a definitive ROI gained from executive coaching. While the studies seek objective data, the process by which the data is captured contains a subjective element. This has made it extremely difficult to quantify the results. Consequently, many observers perceive any attempt to reach a consensus has been invalid due to a faulty model.

However, most studies, no matter what criteria and metrics are employed, arrive at the same conclusion: executive coaching produces an ROI between 500% and 600%. Many different studies have been conducted since 1999, from sources such as Fortune Magazine, Chemistry Business Magazine, the International Coach Federation, and Linkage, Inc. Despite dissimilar methodologies, the studies yielded strikingly similar numbers. They all reported an average ROI between five and seven times the amount of the initial investment.

The study that is still considered to be the definitive study in the field, even today was conducted by MetrixGlobal in 2001. MetrixGlobal surveyed 100 executives of Fortune 1000 companies who had received executive coaching for a period between six months and one year. The survey questioned the executives about a wide range of different metrics concerning the ROI of executive coaching. The executives reported that their companies benefited from improvement in customer service, development of potential successors, improved individual performance, and better bottom line results. The executives also reported individual benefits, citing improvements in their working relationships with direct reports, immediate supervisors, peers, and clients. They also reported improvements in job satisfaction and teamwork.

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