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Leaders as Teachers
Rudy Karsan, CEO, Kenexa
"Leader as teacher" is not about "teaching" people how to achieve their vision. It is about fostering learning, for everyone. Such leaders help people throughout the organization develop systemic understandings.—Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline. The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. 1990).
The image conjured up by the word "leader" is one of charisma and power, of leading followers, of wisdom and knowledge, of being responsible for taking the organization forward while also guiding and helping people to achieve goals, develop themselves, maximize their professional potential, and learn. Among the many roles that a leader plays, one of the most crucial is the possession and effective imparting of knowledge—in other words, teaching. Now, whether this is referred to as coaching, guiding, or mentoring, the basic premise is that the leader is imparting the sum of his or her knowledge and experience in order to steer people in the right direction.
The Benefit of Consistency for Organizations
Jeffrey Saltzman, New York Practice Leader, Kenexa
"We are what we repeatedly do." – Aristotle
The other day I tried to track down the origins of the joke “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” My recollection of the response was “Practice, Practice, Practice”. I had thought that it was an old Jack Benny joke. To my surprise I found many different potential origins to that joke, but the one I liked and settled upon was the version that had violinist Jascha Heifitz being hailed by a man on a New York street. The man asks Heifitz, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Heifitz replies, without missing a beat, “Practice!”
Is Your 360˚ Feedback System Valid?
David W. Bracken, Executive Consultant, Kenexa
Whether a 360° feedback process is used solely for developmental purposes, decision making or (most typically) something in between, organizational resources are dedicated to the process and outcome and, more importantly, employees are almost always affected one way or another. Thus, regardless of stated purpose or use, it is critical that the process generates valid, reliable information.
Leading for Creativity
Anne Herman, Research Consultant, Kenexa; Jeffrey A. Jolton, Director of Global Consulting, Kenexa
When leading for creativity, there are often a number of hidden and known influences that affect the presence and type of creativity produced. The work environment contains a number of intentional and unintentional factors that foster or inhibit creativity. Leaders can greatly impact the creativity (or lack of it) in an organization.
Making Performance Management Relevant
Jeff Weekley, Ph.D., Senior Research Director, Kenexa; Jeff Labrador, Ph.D., Research Consultant, Kenexa
“I’d rather kick bricks with my bare feet than do appraisals!” – Anonymous
A survey by the Society for Human Resources Management concluded that over 90% of performance appraisal systems are a failure. Managers and employees alike typically view the impending review process with dread. For most, it is a painful bureaucratic process that rears its ugly head once a year—and once done, retreats into the human resource (HR) department’s archives until roughly the same time the following year. A few companies, however, have broken this mold and use performance management (PM) as a competitive advantage, one facilitating the execution of their business strategy. What separates the typically unsuccessful PM systems from those that help drive the business?
Fostering a Climate for Creativity Toward Innovation (Part I)
Anne E. Herman, M.A., Research Consultant, Kenexa; Leo F. Brajkovich, Ph.D., Executive Consultant, Kenexa
An organization’s climate, or work atmosphere, represents the primary backdrop that influences employees’ beliefs about their work environment. The climate affects the setting and ongoing adjustment, as well as employees’ expectations about what the organization desires and expects of them. When we are interested in fostering creativity and innovation in our organization, we must consider to what extent the organizational climate is conducive to opportunity, encouragement, and support. This is especially important because we know that most creative people are particularly responsive to workplace climate factors. Additionally, key aspects of an organization’s climate for creativity will serve as effective starting points for creativity-related interventions. It is likely that large numbers of employers will need to gain a strong understanding of how to target these interventions based on climate. A 2006 survey of corporate leaders conducted by SHRM indicated that 73.6% rated creativity/innovation among the “most critical” emerging content and skill areas over the next five years.
Creativity in Groups and Teams
Anne Herman, M.A., Research Consultant, Kenexa
Most of the work on creative thought processes has focused on understanding these at the individual level (Mumford, Mobley, Uhlman, Reiter-Palmon & Doares, 1991; Ward, Smith & Finke, 1999). We have only limited information about how these cognitive processes operate at the team level or group level. Understanding how creativity operates at the team level is especially important because many of our organizations utilize teams as the primary unit of employee arrangement. This article will review what we know about how some of the cognitive components of creativity (problem construction, information search and gathering, idea generation, idea evaluation and selection) are influenced by group and team dynamics.
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