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SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Chapter 9 –Talent Development Leaders find good workers and keep them proficient in their work. Talent development refers to the

process of selecting, training, promoting, mentoring, and sponsoring employees. For us it means finding

and keeping energetic, self-developing employees throughout the organization. Talent and leadership

development practices are positively related to employees’ intention to stay and their commitment to

the organization.

Leaders often get in their own way in this process. They can hire people

that are too much like themselves, thereby not adding to the needed

diversity in the organization; or they hire people who will not threaten the

status quo – “yes people.” Leaders can also have a tendency to rely on

selection tools that look good but don’t work well. Some go outside the

organization to hire good people while others focus on only developing

talent in-house to lower selection costs; employee selection is a balancing

game between these two focuses. Leaders can also get too busy or too

focused and ignore the people around them who are striving to better

themselves and get ahead.

Employee selection is the process of matching people and jobs, which

usually involves multiple steps to evaluate candidates for a specific job -

interviewing and testing are common. Employee selection can range from

a very simple to a very complicated process, depending on the position

and employment laws. Employee selection processes are preceded by a recruiting system that brings

candidates to the firm to be evaluated. Leaders are always part of each process because they know what

is needed of candidates on the job and have to work with the individuals in the end. Flaws in employee

selection will always fall on the leader, no matter how involved or uninvolved.

Beyond selection, many leaders have a tendency to avoid coaching and mentoring because of the time

commitment or being uncomfortable with that level of interpersonal interaction. Coaching is helping

individuals on new tasks or to find better ways to do the work; mentoring is a relationship in which a

more experienced person helps to guide a less experienced individual; and sponsoring is introducing a

colleague to someone, matching a protégé to projects where they will learn, and otherwise opening up

opportunities. While talent development has been proven to foster high-performance, less than 10-20%

of managers are usually held accountable for developing talent.

IMPACT

As much as 80% of employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions. The total cost of recruiting the

wrong employee is very high; it includes hiring, total compensation, coaching, poor performance,

eventual severance pay, and other factors like legal fees. It can be in the hundreds of thousands of

CHAPTER TAKEAWAYS  Be on the lookout for

promotable employees in your workforce

 Overcome you bias in employee selection

 Learn why use of an interview guide is important

 Learn how easy and effective on-the-job training can be

 Hone your coaching skills

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/candidate.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/job.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/staff.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/range.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/position.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/law.html

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

dollars for a mid-level manager. Overall, the U.S. is devoting $105 billion a year (1% of total US GDP) to

correcting problems associated with poor hiring and people management practices.1 According to a The

Future Foundation study, management hires do not work out because of performance issues, a poor

skills match, unclear performance objectives, and cultural mismatch - the perfect candidate who clashes

with the organization’s culture. Furthermore, 23% of U.S. workers surveyed believe their colleagues are

incompetent and U.S. managers waste an average of 34 days per year dealing with underperformance.

Senior executives claim they spend over an hour per day managing poor-performing employees. Even

worse, employees admit that 68% of the mistakes they make never come to their managers' attention.

This time and effort could be used on value-adding tasks – it is a huge handicap.

Excellent talent development entails spending a little bit more time looking at candidates and

employees. To save enormous time correcting the results of poor hires and promotions, great leaders

spend the time to clarify what "talent" means in the organization, perceive talent development as an

integrated process, and organize it as a coherent effort. They offer mentoring by true role models. The

time spent upfront on these functions will save time and energy later on performance management,

disciplining or firing employees, dealing with significant turnover, or trying to improve productivity of a

disengaged workforce. The talent development handicap is one of the easiest to avoid – just a little

extra effort and deliberate action. Accept the premise of “pay me now or pay me later” and attend to

the tools readily available.

THE REAL ISSUES At issue here are the following:

 The process of always being on the lookout for eager, smart talent in your workforce and those you see in other worlds

 Analyzing candidates against a competency standard defined by outstanding performance and outcomes and making good decisions

 Mentoring/sponsoring/training talent to even greater heights Little of this is the kind of self-handicapping that falls into the fear or self-deception categories – while

some leaders may hire “yes-men,” most leaders usually don’t fear finding great talent, they just don’t

know how or it isn’t the highest priority. They may have delegated this function inappropriately. Most

leaders know that lack of time is no longer an excuse in this day and age; none of us have enough time in

the day. But poor talent development due to lack of time or avoidance means the leader will spend

more time down the road fixing the problems. Exercising good talent management will preload skill and

ability into a workforce and help lead the team to excellence.

Leaders can have a tendency to commit errors of judgment or errors of bias in the talent development

process. Leaders join groups that represent their shared interests and they carry this tendency into work

- they go to lunch with friends, talk around the coffee maker about football, and other activities. If they

aren’t careful, they can carry this behavior into the search for job candidates - they can excuse a lack of

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

work competency for a shared love of golf or a deficit in education/certification for graduating from the

same college. Bias in employee selection is easy to miss, but once recognized and acknowledged, it is

easy to eliminate.

Most new careerists view having a mentor as a ticket to greater visibility and better assignments and

promotions.2 Mentors can enjoy influence when their protégés rise to stardom. There are benefits for

both, except mentoring can go bad. Some mentors end up neglecting their protégés because they are

preoccupied with challenges in their own careers. Mentors can manipulate, especially when the mentor

is the protégé's manager in the same department. Protégés can also manipulate and harm a mentor's

reputation and career. Sometimes protégés rely on their mentor too much – they become co-

dependent. A protégé can find a poor mentor and has no way of knowing this mentor is out of favor or

out of date and providing poor advice. These situations are all clearly self-handicapping for both

individuals.

A fundamental premise of this book is that self-handicapping behavior often doesn’t look like failure to

the manager who is self-handicapping. Remember the guy on the roof tearing up newspaper; he

thought he was being successful keeping the wolves away. On the best day, a 30 to 50% hit rate is the

definition of success in employee selection, so someone doing a bad job in employee selection doesn’t

necessarily look too bad. Furthermore, the manager may be hiring exactly the kind of people he really

wants to hire - they’re just not good for the customer or the organization. Controlling managers usually

expect superior performance without superior selection, delegation or training.3

DO YOU PRACTICE POOR TALENT DEVELOPMENT? SURVEY: Do I Practice Poor Talent Development or Not? (Y = Yes, N= No, DK = Don’t Know)

____ I am not always on the lookout for developing talent in my area.

____ Leaders here have a tendency to hire the wrong people. ____ I don’t seem to very good hiring people who can work independently and grow. ____ I don’t always walk around my organization in different ways so that I can talk to different

people? ____ I don’t feel comfortable confronting employees when their performance problems. ____ I am not always good at paying attention to the fit of new hires to the team/org. ____ I tend to hire people from my alma mater. ____ I am not mentoring anyone. ____ I am guilty of allowing coaching & mentoring from bad leaders in my area. ____ I think of my staff as a means to an end - that is, meeting departmental goals - rather than a

group of people trying to live their lives well. ____ I am not a good interviewer. ____ We do not have a clear competence model for each position. ____ We made up our competencies; there is no data or proof they cause good customer outcomes.

Scores

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

10-13 Y’s - You are greatly self-handicapping your talent management 5 – 9 - You are inconsistent on your approach to talent management 1 – 4 - You are good at talent management Beware of fudging on this evaluation. It is easy to be self-deceived in talent development activity. WHAT TO DO Organizations thrive on effective talent management. Below is a list of what to do to foster effective talent development.

1. Align talent selection criteria to mission. Pick talent with the mission/vision in mind. These items will dictate your competencies and needs – which should then guide the selection process. This is rare in organizations even though most leaders won’t admit to it.

2. Define and use competencies for selection process. Competencies guide the process and help avoid biases.

3. Use an interview guide. Using a guide will increase the validity of interviewing for many reasons and can serve as a record of the interview. It makes the process easier for the manager.

4. Evaluate the interviewers. Good hires depend on good interviewers. The outcomes of the process should be evaluated – tenure & productivity of the hires.

5. Be on the lookout for internal talent that can be promoted. Doing this can help multiple ways - increase morale - and it can be financially better to groom an internal employee rather than training a new one.

6. Coach your employees. Teach your employee how to improve. In a few months you will know who is promotable and who isn’t – and your employees will feel appreciated because you took time to speak with them.

7. Sponsor employees. Introduce and match your employees with a colleague. Arrange a special project for your employee to help your colleague on. Focus on growth.

8. Mentor employees. Mentoring can either be formal or informal, usually outside the junior employee’s chain of supervision.

9. Provide training. As things change, make it easy for employees to keep up to date. 10. Ensure mentors and coaches are good. Allowing poor coaching or mentoring can derail and

even ruin the career of a junior employee. 11. Pay attention to fit of people in teams and the organization. The culture of an organization will

always win. Fit the hires to it.

WHY DON’T YOU? Expediency

Often, poor recruiting and hiring are simply lack of skill or of understanding the process. Leaving this

important function totally in the HR office – or even undone - is self-handicapping. Lack of

understanding how to find and keep talent in an organization is a behavioral handicap caused by

reduced effort – the effort to educate oneself about the process and practice doing talent development

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

activities. HR starts the process, the leader owns it and ends it with the final decision. The leader always

lives with the outcomes of the process.

Most selection is done to match a person to a job, so the first thing that must be done is to understand

the job – what does it take of an individual to do it. That will result in a list of competencies.

Competencies are characteristics of a person that cause superior performance. These resources may be:

1. Motives—the things a person consistently thinks about or wants that cause action. 2. Traits—physical characteristics and consistent responses to situations or information. 3. Self-concept—a person’s attitudes, values, or self-image. 4. Knowledge—information a person has in specific content areas. 5. Skill—the ability to perform a certain physical or mental task.

Some characteristics (self-concept, traits, & motives) may be difficult to measure and can be skipped by

leaders, while others (skill, knowledge) are somewhat easier. Managers have traditionally used selection

tools measuring mostly skill and knowledge competencies – with a little motivation thrown in. They

either assume that applicants have the underlying attitude and trait competencies or that these can be

instilled by good management. However, in most jobs, the opposite is true. Today, with the

independence of workers, what distinguishes superior performers are motivation, attitude,

interpersonal skills, self-concept issues, and political competencies. Furthermore, some managers

actually think they can judge these through a quick interview – this attitude on the part of the leader is a

self-handicap. Leaders who avoid handicapping know how to develop competency models and to

develop reliable and valid selection tools. They also understand that knowing the customers’ desired

outcomes is critical to competency development and assessment – competencies cause good customer

outcomes. Leaders accomplish things through their workers; poor workers produce poor results. It all

starts with talent development.

Furthermore, most organizations miss the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of managers as

interviewers, mentors, or trainers. This is difficult to do in most cases because the manager doing the

poor hiring or training is also the manager who is completing the performance appraisal of those

employees, which is the outcome measure in any such evaluation system. Regardless, a formal or

informal method of evaluating interviewers should not be overlooked. What is measured is what gets

done. Sometimes in-depth reference checks can be used for this.

What talent development handicaps are you creating because of expediency issues?

______________________________________________________________________________

Avoidance

One issue never to avoid is when selection systems do not support the leader’s or organization’s

strategy and vision. The authors can’t count the number of organizations we have walked into where

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

the executives have told us they were trying to change some aspect of the culture of their organization;

and when we walk into the HR office, we don’t find a single selection or performance management

system measuring those aspects. Simply put, organizations talk about strategic HR, but they rarely

practice it.

Leadership creates strategy and HR develops selection systems. Guess who’s in the middle when they

don’t match – the manager. Almost all organizations use interviews by managers as part of their

selection system. So, managers are involved. The mission, vision, and values of the organization and the

competencies required in the job must be translated into interview questions asked of candidates. It is

time consuming to work through this process, but avoiding it is a severe self-handicap.

There’s no reason why any manager can’t draw a list of the departmental strategies and develop a

competency list for each. The trick here is to keep it simple and do it. Take a look at the figure below as

an example of how to do this:

Strategy Competency Behaviors Selection Methodology

Training Strategy

Performance Mgt. Strategy

Lower costs Be cost conscious

1. Know item costs

2. Waste less of the expensive items

Interview question: “How do you lower costs through employee interventions in your current position?” or “How would you lower costs here ?”

1. Training on item costs 2. Identify expensive items and develop strategies to lower waste

Reminders of cost strategy Coaching on same Incentives

The next step in this process is to translate these competencies into a valid selection system. Since

managers are usually involved in the interview, one can develop specific questions as above and put

those questions into an “interview guide.” An interview guide is a prewritten list of questions, probes,

and interviewing hints that guide the interview. Developing such a guide is one of our “behaviors to

change” below. What is important is that this guide will help ensure that the mission/vision guide

selection, help a manager remember the questions developed prior to the interview, increase validity of

the process, protect him from legal issues, and provide a format to take notes so that candidates are

compared on the same information. To the extent that a leader takes the extra time to develop a guide

and use it, he will enhance both the candidate/job fit and candidate/strategy fit and will be seen as one

of the better leaders in the organization. Leaders who hire self-starters spend less time coaching

employees and finding new employees.

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

What talent development issues are you avoiding?

____________________________________________________________________________________

Apprehension

Consider the following situation in interviewing two applicants: Sam and Dave. Both possess the

minimum requirements for the position; however, you notice some differences during the interview

process. Sam’s previous work experience shows a man with independent thought, and he tends to excel

in IT – one of the requirements. While you admit that Sam is a wonderful candidate, but he wasn’t

overly friendly to and you gathered that he isn’t afraid to speak his mind on professional items. While

Dave’s resume and interview show him meeting the minimum requirements of the job, he is probably

not independent at solving problems. He seems agreeable and nonthreatening. You hit it off

immediately with him because he was in the same fraternity as you, has a background in finance – just

like you - and he just seems like a likable guy.

So who do you hire? We know the socially acceptable answer – Sam. But, the reality in many cases, is

that Dave is less threatening and it seems that he would fit in with little disruption. The question that

every leader has to ask in this situation is can he choose the candidate that’s best for the department

and organization or best for himself? You recognize Sam’s talents and know he would be a valued

member of the company – but he could be a problem for you down the road. Dave, on the other hand,

does possess the minimum requirements for the position and you KNOW that is no threat to you now or

later. This type of hiring may not be handicapping for you, it is self-defeating for your organization.

Most leaders know that they should be continually searching for young talent to cultivate and move

higher in the organization, but why don’t they do it? Often it is time – too many conflicting problems.

But, some leaders deep down feel they shouldn’t hire independent thinkers or look for junior employees

to mentor, because, “What if they become more successful than me?” They then take the safe route;

hire the 4 instead of the 7 (and down the rabbit hole they go). The team is stuck with a 4, and it plods

along; it is the organization that spends a lot of energy to just stay steady. And it builds because the 4’s

probably hire 2’s. When a manager has this mindset, he is essentially keeping the team from growing,

and that is handicapping everyone. Inhibiting the better players from entering the game and playing just

sends them to your competition which makes them better.

The authors have seen many leaders consistently make their hiring decisions based on perceived or

actual loyalty. While some degree of organizational loyalty is a required competency, asking for too

much loyalty and conformance is not. Furthermore, hiring loyal and nonthreatening candidates can

foster a codependent relationship in a department, which continues to build with more hires. The longer

Dave continues as a mediocre employee, the less able he will be to find another job – thereby increasing

the manager’s and organization’s hold over him –the longer he stays and the more loyal he becomes.

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

While we all appreciate loyalty, the organization is less innovative, Dave is a less productive employee,

the workforce becomes less customer-friendly and the manager is seen as less than effective.

One of the things that is critical in mentoring is the degree one trusts that the protégé will not

embarrass him in some way. We coach those that we may not trust, we may mentor those that we don’t

completely know, but sponsoring and long-term mentoring relationships must involve knowledge of the

individual and a relatively high degree of trust.

The key decision points in deciding to sponsor or mentor depend on getting to authentic trust; a leader

must understand the level of goodwill an employee has for him as well as the belief in that person’s

competence. The leader will not reach a state of authentic trust until he believes that the protégé has

both. Most of us know trust when we feel it, but sometimes it can be useful to ask: “Does the employee

care about me?” and “Is the employee competent?” You can use the following chart to help sort this out

for different employees 4 and understand underlying feelings about mentoring and sponsoring them:

Does the employee care about me? Yes Affection Trust

No Distrust Respect

No Yes

Is the employee competent?

Do any fears play in into your talent development?

____________________________________________________________________________________

Self-Deception

Many leaders are unaware of the biases they bring to employee selection and development. An implicit

bias is a positive or negative mental attitude towards a person that a person holds at an unconscious

level. It is difficult to get people to acknowledge that it actually exists and should be changed. If a leader

is hiring people he is comfortable with, he is probably very happy with the situation. The problem is that

the workforce hired is not doing a great job. Furthermore, given that the easiest way to stop poor hiring

is to remove the manager doing the poor hiring, that leader may not want to find himself in this

predicament.

And, don’t forget the old “in” group. Managers tend to give their “in” group more leeway, trust them

more, assume they have an internal locus of control, forgive their errors more readily, etc. They will also

give them the most coaching and training attention. But, guess who is in more desperate need of that

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

attention – the “out” group. This is a huge bias that should not be ignored. We have some hints on how

to approach effective training below. None of it is difficult; you just have to do it. Great leaders know

how to effectively coach, mentor, and train their employees.

Finally, Manfred Kets de Vries 5 suggests some of us are motivated less by a desire to help others than by

a deeper emotional need within ourselves. If you fall into this category, you may be a “rescuer,” who

builds inappropriate dependency relationships with the people you want to help. People become

rescuers because they have a need to be liked or just a basic personality as a “helper.” In this kind of

relationship, both parties inevitably suffer. The person being helped may receive no real beneficial help,

while the rescuer may become overburdened with the dependency of the other – they become a time

leech. So if you find yourself being emotionally and physically drained by a professional colleague you

feel responsible for, perhaps you should take a serious look at why you feel compelled to help that

person.

What talent development may you be missing because of self-deception?

____________________________________________________________________________________

BEHAVIORS TO CHANGE Knowing the Competencies Needed in the Job Recognize. The first step to talent management is to know what is needed. Ask yourself this question:

“In my workforce, where do most of the problems occur?” Is it lack of skill and knowledge to do the job

or is it that the employee does not have the “right” attitude, motivation, or self-concept to be effective?

We have asked this question of thousands of managers and always get the same answer: attitude,

motivation, and self-concept. We believe, as do those in companies such as Apple and Google, that

selection should increasingly be based on the personality that it takes to be innovative and effective in

today’s high paced, complex world – in other words, not self-handicapping. We suggest a complete

review of any organization’s selection processes and a possible rebuild of competencies assessed. More

focus on personality and motivational/self-concept competencies can force us all away from self-

handicapping the selection process. Granted, this makes for a more expensive selection process, but

finding effective employees – and especially leaders -- can quickly pay for itself.

Admit. Keep in mind that the manager practicing poor talent management is still hiring on attitude and

self-concept; it’s just on the dysfunctional side of the coin – unquestioning loyalty, codependence,

willingness to take abuse, etc. If this is this you, it can be difficult to admit that you need to refocus on

the functional and effective side of attitude, motivation, and self-concept. If you are comfortable with all

of your direct reports, you should examine what you have been doing. Innovative, independent people

are irritating. No irritation may mean poor hiring.

http://www.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/doc.cfm?did=46469

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Just to be clear: civil rights laws or the affirmative action guidelines do not prohibit measuring attitude,

motivation, or self-concept. What federal and state civil rights law says is that you may not discriminate

against a person in any employment decision (e.g. selection, assessment) because of the race, sex,

religion, color, national origin, age, mental or physical impairment, veteran status (and other state

classes such as marital status, sexual orientation, etc.). What this really means is that you can assess

anything as long as it is not race, color, sex, etc., does not adversely affect a protected class, you do not

treat people differently, and you can prove what you did use to decide. Traits and self-concept are fair

game in most cases if required by the job.

Adjust. Step one is to list your biases. Take out a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle

vertically. On the left list any and all biases you have – don’t worry, you can burn it in a few minutes.

Whatever they are - “I hire only from my alma mater”, “fat people are lazy”, “people that know Cisco

are wonderful”, “red heads are never introverted” - get it all out and look at it. Say, “Yes, this is me.”

Then, on the right side of the sheet write down the impact for you, your department, and organization

each of those biases can create. Hiring only from one school perpetuates one kind of thinking or

knowledge base, I am missing out on all the non-skinny people who are super productive, etc. Now

ponder this and see how important those biases are to you. While some biases are suppressed and they

may not be conscious, 80% are conscious and you can admit to them. You choose to have and use them.

Some may be based on good data; just remember it is not really valid data, it is only your limited

experience. So, choose to counteract your biases. Take deliberate action and change your thinking.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get serious about how you really determine what is required

of a person for great performance. A selection system should be based on a job analysis to ensure that

the selection criteria are job-related. This analysis will determine the knowledge, skills, ability, and other

characteristics (traits, attitudes, self-concept, motivation, etc.) required to perform the job successfully –

competencies. In employee selection, tests and interviews are used to determine if a candidate

possesses these competencies.

Key Behaviors: One easy way to determine competencies is to use the following chart. Write down the

core tasks/responsibilities of a job, what the customer wants from that task and then what it takes of

the person to provide it.

Competency or Job Task

Customer Need Sub Competency Behavior

Provide nursing care Get well Perform nursing task

Document care

Not hurt Be quick

Distract patient

Be respected Don’t talk down to patient

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

For more information on developing a competence model, see Marrelli, et al.6

Interviewing Recognize. There are countless tools, methods, and approaches to making good selection

decisions. Most are marginal at best. The most valid methods are expensive and time consuming (e.g.,

assessment centers and work sample tests). Most companies fall back on the tried and true interview

because managers know the job, need to see and talk to the candidate, and interviews are quick and

cheap. So, let’s discuss how to approach the interview to avoid self-sabotaging talent development. We

refer you to your HRM department or Far & Tippins7 for more information on other employee selection

methods.

Admit. The interview remains the single most common technique used in the hiring process, yet

research suggests that it is not highly valid. Not only are interviewers likely to inject their personal

prejudices or first impressions into the selection decision, but they also may not be using effective or

relevant questions to gain information from the candidate – especially about competencies. Interview

guides help structure the interview and this increases validity. Managers often use the resume or

application for this, but that does not usually help get at any real competencies and it is essentially

spending time asking about information one already has – on the application. Furthermore, the most

accurate selection decisions are those made by choosing the best of several applicants rather than a yes

or no decision made after each applicant is interviewed –all should be interviewed with the same

questions and then one chosen. Lack of advance preparation in preparing an interview guide may lead

to poor outcomes.

Adjust. One of the best ways to become a productive, efficient interviewer is to prepare and use an

interview guide. An interview guide is a written document containing questions, interviewer directions,

and other pertinent information so that the same process is followed and the same basic information is

gathered from each applicant. Structuring the interview with an interview guide:

 increases its effectiveness by helping reduce the interviewer’s bias

 makes for easy note taking so the interviewer recall of information about each applicant and can be stored to later justify the selection decision

 reduces the tendency of managers to make snap judgments based on superficial criteria

 allows for required note taking per question on the actual interview guide

 reduces the tendency of managers to use the interview to simply confirm first impressions

 gives the interviewer the same basic information on all candidates allow for a more thorough comparison of candidates on the same criteria

Here is a sample interview guide8

INTERVIEW GUIDE The Interviewer should record responses to each question during the interview.

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Candidate: _______________________________________ Interviewer: ______________________________________ Date: ___________________ Position Sought: _____________________________ REVIEW OF APPLICATION FORM NOTES: OPEN THE INTERVIEW AND ESTABLISH RAPPORT Warm, friendly greeting. Names are important, yours and the applicant’s. (Use first and last name correctly). Break the ice – talk about his or her trip, hobbies, weather, etc. and talk briefly about your position, hobbies, etc. NOTES: OUTLINE TOPICS TO BE COVERED IN THE INTERVIEW Education Work History Miscellaneous Job Preview NOTES: QUESTIONS ABOUT EDUCATION NOTES: QUESTIONS ABOUT WORK HISTORY NOTES: QUESTIONS ABOUT COMPETENCIES NOTES: OTHER TOPICS Self-Evaluation Relocation Technical Licenses/Certificates Availability REALISTIC JOB PREVIEW INFO Thank the applicant. Questions?

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

The most useful questions are open ended (“How do you feel about…?” or “Give me your opinion on…”

or “Tell me about…”) or work sample or behavioral (“Given situation X, how would you handle that?” or

“How do you create ________ function in MS Excel?”). Avoid leading questions where the answer is

implied in the question (“We have a lot of overtime the last week of the month. How do you feel about

working overtime?” or in behavioral interviewing, “Tell me about a time you have a difficult situation

and what you did” which only asks for triumphs not failures. Avoid questions every applicant has

prepared for in advance (“Tell me about yourself.” “What are your strengths for this job?”). Use closed

ended questions only as probing questions to follow up an open ended or work sample question. (e.g.,

where, what, when, why, how many). If you are typically more intuitive or emotional, include more

technical skill questions; if you value specific technical competence, ask more about character traits like

motivation and interpersonal skills. If you find yourself liking the candidate, probe for negative

information, and visa-versa. Remember, some degreed interviewees may have more interview training

than you have. And, the more you speak the less you learn.

Finally, as you ponder questions for your interview guide, go back to the first two chapters of this book

and think about how to look for individuals who do not self-handicap. We know that self-handicapping is

done by those who are uncertain, so self-esteem and self-efficacy come to mind. They are difficult to

measure in an interview, but you can assess true confidence at some level. Also, goal orientation is

important. Those with a drive to mastery – not being best or avoiding error – but continually growing

and learning would be preferable. We think humility and theory of intelligence are predictors of a

mastery goal orientation. An openness to recognizing, admitting, and adjusting self-sabotage could be

assessed. Finally, any knowledge of the ERO Spiral would indicate a candidate who is likely to do less

self-damage on the job. If eliminating self-handicapping becomes your quest, make sure your selection

instruments reflect that strategy.

Interviewing and Hiring Key Behaviors: First, some hints:

 Do you have a written list of required competencies for your department and most jobs? An interview guide?

 When interviewing, if the candidate is starting to look perfect, step back and reexamine the situation. Why are you so comfortable with the candidate?

 Develop a quality control function for interviewing and employee selection. Keep a list of your assessments of candidates and track performance – are you selecting people who stay and are successful?

 Admit you and no one else are very good at employee selection. Keep trying to do it better.

 Look for those who self-handicap. The Key Behaviors for interviewing follow:9

Opening the Interview 1. Give a warm, friendly welcome – relax and smile 2. Talk about yourself or some other neutral subject to put the person at ease. 3. Tell the person what you will cover during the interview.

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Probing for Information 1. Probe for unfavorable information. 2. Seek information to refute your first impression. 3. Don’t ask leading questions. 4. Ask only one question at a time. 5. Use such words as How, What, Why, and Tell me. 6. Use the interview guide!!

Giving a Realistic Job Preview 1. Take a genuine interest in the person—discuss his or her interests. 2. Make a point to discuss those aspects about the job and the institution that lie within his or her

interests. 3. Describe the job and the institution realistically, using a job preview checklist like that in the

previous skills practice exercise for the particular job. Discuss both good points and problems.

Closing the Interview 1. Summarize applicant’s strengths and weaknesses. 2. Ask if he or she has anything to add. 3. Tell him or her the next steps in the employment process. 4. Thank the applicant. 5. Complete interview notes after the interview.

Being on the Lookout for Talent to Grow Inside an Organization Recognize. Companies sometimes have trouble retaining their talent. There are many reasons for this.

Eric Jackson10 suggests the following:

1. Big Company Bureaucracy –no one likes rules that make no sense. 2. Failing to Find a Project for the Talent that Ignites Their Passion –top talent is driven by something that will change the world. 3. Poor Annual Performance Reviews –ineffective performance reviews leave with the employee with the impression that the boss isn’t really interested. 4. No Discussion of Career Development –everyone wants to have a discussion about their future. 5. Shifting Strategic Priorities –top talent hates to be “jerked around.” 6. Lack of Accountability –top talent demands accountability from others and doesn’t mind being held accountable themselves. 7. Top Talent likes other Top Talent –if you want to keep your best people, make sure they’re surrounded by other great people. 8. Missing Vision –if the future of your organization is not exciting, good people will find where it is. 9. Lack of Open-Mindedness –the best people want to share their ideas and have them listened to. 10. The Boss - If a few people have recently quit at your company who report to the same boss, it’s likely not a coincidence.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2011/12/15/top-ten-keys-to-building-a-talent-firewall-in-your-organization/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephaniechristensen/2011/12/11/5-ways-to-spot-a-bad-boss-in-an-interview/

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Jackson suggests that smart organizations are ones who get out in front of these ten things and that

organizations attending to them will keep more superior employees. However, in our consulting, we

continually see one very simple-to-fix “up-front” problem that is not on this list: interacting with people

on a daily basis and identifying those who are potential top talent – those that want to get ahead, make

changes, innovate, grow, or act entrepreneurially.

Admit. Large companies often have a complex succession planning program where managers identify

their potential successor. A good resource for examples is http://www.workforce.com/topics/115-

talent-management-systems. Smaller companies identify a key person and then prepare that person for

the job in various ways. The problem is that neither of these techniques really work. Organizations are

not stable and succession charts are quickly out of date. Second, competence at one level of an

organization does not guarantee competence at the next level. Functional managers do not always

make the transition to broader leadership roles. The key is to develop "bench strength" of several

individuals at each level who might fulfill roles at the next level. Bench strength creates greater flexibility

for both the individuals and the organization. This can only be done by interacting with your people,

analyzing who wants and can get ahead, and then moving them into coaching and mentoring

opportunities.

This is done in conversations between a leader and his employees. Beverly Kaye has a book, Help Them

Grow or Watch Them Go, about these conversations.11 In these conversations, it should be a priority to

understand what is important to each employee. When employees are recognized for making gains

towards career advancement, they feel valued and appreciated. Never take high-performing employees

for granted; their success is probably due to seeking challenge and doing the right things towards

advancement. Admire their accomplishments and help them move up.

Adjust. We have a very successful system CEO friend who consciously walks to regular scheduled

meetings through different routes in the buildings, simply so that he can stop and interact with different

employees. He does this to see and be seen but also to find out what people are doing and thinking

about their futures. Most of us are where we are professionally because of help from someone

recognized our talents – maybe even on one of those walks or in a meeting. Pass that favor forward by

adding the following technique to your talent development efforts. This is one of the easiest ways for

you to be a great leader.

Key Behaviors: Here’s how. Whenever you interact with an employee either you or your assistant can

add to the following table. After some time, you will know who deserves mentoring and further

development. Don’t try to sit down and do this all at once. Talk to them!

Rate each employee on each trait Low 1 to 10 High. Add the scores for each. Higher scores indicate talent to develop, mentor, sponsor.

Employees

http://www.workforce.com/topics/115-talent-management-systems

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Talent Trait

Avoids office gossip and instead builds positive/constructive relationships within the department and organization.

Volunteers for projects and helps coworkers.

Deflects attention from themselves and credits others where appropriate.

Successfully completes difficult or ambiguous projects without close supervision.

Mentors new employees without having to be asked.

Looks at failures as opportunities and is always looking for growth opportunities.

Arrives on time, goes to work immediately, and wastes little time.

Joins professional associations or seeks development outside the office.

Demonstrates leadership in the community.

Helps other employees stay track and manages projects without a formal title.

Despite adversity or difficulty, persistent effort is made to solve problems.

Accepts feedback and criticism well.

Avoids gossip and negative “gripe” groups.

Takes ownership of tasks or problems. Gets them done right the first time.

Is always looking for better ways to do things.

Demonstrates a passion for the job.

Treats customers and co-workers with

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

respect and always tries to add value.

Always presents self and acts professionally.

Understand customer desires and always adds value to customer relationships.

Exemplifies the image you wish your company to project

Total Score

Adapted from “Is Your Employee Promotable?” By Elaine Stattler, http://www.managingpeopleatwork.com. January, 2013.

Avoidance of Coaching and Discipline (Performance Management) Recognize. Once promotable individuals have been identified, this talent pool will need development.12

Leadership development requires three ingredients: formal training, performance management, and

mentoring/sponsoring. Formal training is necessary, but not sufficient. Developing leaders also need

coaches - or mentors; mentors and protégés should select each other voluntarily. For coaching to be

effective it is has to relevant, job-related, specific, and frequent. Sponsoring people at the level for

which they are being developed allows those individuals to receive development and the organization

has an opportunity to assess their work.

Admit. Most likely, it didn’t require you reading the preceding paragraph to know that you should be

mentoring, coaching, and sponsoring your employees. But why don’t we do it? What is holding you

back from realizing your potential for influencing ownership in our employees? Is it an issue of lack of

interest in people, being introverted, fear of competition, avoidance of getting too psychologically close,

or perhaps just needing reminding from time to time? Maybe you are thinking that if you don’t talk

about it they may not think about it and the status quo will be safe. Maybe you think employees need to

own their own careers, and their development is not your job. Or maybe you just think everyone wants

more, so why bother. Those attitudes are self-handicapping and can be costly in the long term.

In our experiences, one of the most costly, but preventable times, in an organization’s life is that of

leader transitions, namely – a situation of a manager/director/executive leaving the company - with no

one to fill that position internally. Potential costs may include loss of productivity, training of external

hires, marketing the position externally, and the costs of making a hiring mistake – time to hire, time to

realize the mistake, time to fire, time of second transition. It adds up and can literally cost years.

We believe the most common reasons for avoiding coaching and mentoring are lack of time and lack of

skill, so we offer quick tools to help in both areas.

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Adjust. On a daily basis, managers coach employees on performance problems – it is part of standard

performance management. Before meeting with a subordinate, the manager should prepare for the

coaching session. Part of this preparation includes a quick diagnosis of the performance problem. A

strategy for diagnosis is found below:13

1. Is the performance discrepancy caused by a basic skills/knowledge problem or lack of motivation?

 If the performance discrepancy is caused by lack of a skills or knowledge, how can that be solved?

 Can the job be changed so that the employee’s present knowledge and skill levels are satisfactory?

 Can the employee learn the knowledge or skills required for effective performance?

 Should the employee be reassigned to another job and a new employee hired? 2. If the performance discrepancy is not caused by a problem in skills or knowledge, why is the

employee not performing up to standards?

 Is it caused by a performance obstacle such as incorrect tools, equipment, or materials?

 Are good employees punished by being given more work or harder work?

 What is the reward for good work?

 Are poor performances rewarded in some way?

 Are performance expectations clear? 3. What is the most effective course of action to correct the performance?

 Is it coaching, training, of changing the rewards? Key Behaviors. Key Behaviors for coaching are14:

1. Always prepare before the meeting with the questions above. 2. State the problem in behavioral terms. Focus on the problem, not the person. 3. Tie the problem to a customer outcome, the organization, or to the person’s self-interest. 4. Try to bring the reasons for the problem into the open. 5. Ask the employee for suggestions and discuss his or her ideas on how to solve the problem. 6. Listen openly. 7. Agree on steps each of you will take to solve the problem. Write them down. 8. Plan and record specific follow-up dates and times.

The coaching session should last only a few minutes and should address small problems before they

become bigger. It is important to state the problem in behavioral terms; this helps reduce

defensiveness and keeps the focus on the performance problem. Encourage the employee to state the

reasons for the problem; don’t assume that you know the reasons. Asking for the employee’s

suggestions on how to solve the problem cannot be overemphasized as that is a key to ownership of it.

Be sure that there is agreement about the solution and always document the steps that will be taken.

Remember that eighty percent of the development of your employees will take place in day-to-day

coaching.

Key Behaviors. Finally, coaching is different from correcting a rule violation. The following are the Key

Behaviors for Dealing with Rule Violations15:

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

1. Prepare before the meeting (e.g., is the employee aware of the rule, how employee will react, has the rule been consistently enforced.)

2. Without hostility, describe the behavior that violated the rule. 3. State the rule that has been violated. 4. Ask for and listen openly to the employee’s reasons for the behavior. 5. Explain why the behavior cannot continue (and offer your help in solving the problem, if you

think it would be useful. 6. Set and record a specific follow-up date.

Avoidance of Mentoring & Sponsoring

Recognize. While coaching is often a managerial job requirement, mentoring is something that is usually

done outside the scope of one’s duties, and sponsoring falls in the middle. A leader or manager can

often arrange special projects and assignments as temporary duties performed by the employee on a

full-time or part-time basis. These can be used to16:

 Enhance an employee’s knowledge or skills in a particular area

 Work with a mix of people with expertise in different areas

 Prepare an employee for career advancement

 Broaden an employee’s knowledge of other functions and departments

 Motivate and challenge an employee

Mentoring is a formal or informal relationship between two people—a senior mentor (usually outside

the protégé’s chain of supervision) and a junior protégé. Mentoring has been shown to be an important

influence in professional development. More and more organizations are creating formal mentoring

programs; but, successful mentoring programs do not just happen. Organizations must devote the time,

attention and resources to make a formal mentoring process work. The US Office of Personnel

Management has developed a good 20 page guide for creating mentoring programs:

http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/training-and-development/career-

development/bestpractices-mentoring.pdf.

Admit. As discussed above, authentic trust is being fully self-aware and cognizant of all the conditions

and limitations involved in trusting someone. An authentic trusting relationship doesn’t simply happen,

nor can it be mandated; it is built over time.17 ASQ, an organization that shares information about

quality improvement, has developed a useful white paper on trust at http://asq.org/hdl/2010/06/a-

primer-on-organizational-trust.pdf. Trust leads to productive mentoring relationships.

Ask yourself the following questions:

 How was I sponsored and how were doors opened for me to get where I am?

 Do I really think I did all this on my own?

 Do my employees deserve the same breaks I got?

 Why am I afraid to pay those favors forward?

 Do I have a network where I can sponsor my employees?

 Is there some reason employees should not be developed to their full potential in my unit?

http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/training-and-development/career-development/bestpractices-mentoring.pdf

http://asq.org/hdl/2010/06/a-primer-on-organizational-trust.pdf

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

 Am I trying to keep my employees where they are rather than help them develop? Why is that so?

As you answer these questions, you may find that you are the barrier to this kind of employee

development in your unit – self-handicapping. Lack of development and lack of engagement of

employees has no good outcome.

Adjust. Many of us have LinkedIn accounts originally created to do our own networking. Over time these

networks grow but should not be forgotten. Just as you use that LinkedIn account to network with

potential mentors and sponsors, you can use the same account to help sponsor your employees. If

you’re not familiar with LinkedIn and do not have an account, go to https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join.

When you identify a potential employee for talent development, you should:

 Define the relationship making clear meeting times, roles and expectations

 Request or recommend topics to cover at mentor/protégé meetings

 Present other ideas to enhance the mentoring relationship

 Ensure an agreement of confidentiality

 Establish termination of agreement rules – the “exit strategy”

Key Behaviors. Mentoring can be a challenge that is well worth the time and effort. Use these key

behaviors to get the most out of mentoring sessions18 :

1. Set aside time so that you can devote your full attention to your mentee. 2. Be fully present and keep eye contact. Mentoring requires your full attention. 3. Make a personal connection. This may be hard for some of us, but get to know the person. 4. Ask open-ended questions to understand the mentee's situation and concerns. Pay attention to the emotion and energy of the mentee. 5. Listen with curiosity, not judgment. Strive for understanding rather than problem solving. 6. Tell your story. People often learn best through storytelling. 7. Follow through on your commitments. If volunteering a book, a referral to one of your contacts, to review a resume, or some other service, make note of your promise and follow through. 8. Schedule your next meeting then and there.

Allowing Mentoring of Employees by Poor Manager Mentors. Remember that employees learn what

they are given regardless of source. Allowing poor coaching and mentoring in your area is almost always

self-handicapping. Many of us have had the opportunity to be mentored by a great leader. You likely

adopted many of their lessons or styles. Maybe you learned to avoid some practices from poor leaders.

But, imagine being mentored by a poor leader. Think about the poor guy in a unit where there are only

1 -2 managers and no formal training or mentoring programs. Does that stop the up and coming

employee from watching their leadership? Typically not. If all the managers are not good models, some

of those junior employees are mature enough to learn what not to do. Many will not be.

https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

When an organization allows junior employees to be mentored by poor mentors/trainers, the future will

consist of more soon-to-be poor managers and leaders. If your position allows you the discretion of

choosing mentors for your junior staff – it is then your responsibility to ensure that only the mentors

who possess the leadership competencies you wish for the future of your company to be mentors to

junior employees.

Avoiding Training Opportunities Recognize. There are several principles that guide training activities:

 Motivation to learn. Trainees must be motivated to attend to the training content – give them

a reason better than “because you said so!”

 Practice. What is practiced is learned and complex tasks should be broken down into smaller

parts.

 Over-learning. Practicing beyond the point of getting it right is critical for retention and transfer

– using it on the job.

 Transfer of training. Learning will be transferred to the job when the training looks like the job

and is reinforced on the job.

 Self-efficacy is motivational. If an employee thinks they cannot do something, learning one

small step at a time (baby steps) builds confidence and the feeling that it can be done.

 Increasing self-efficacy, confidence, and mastery goals. These are key to eliminating self-

handicapping and can be incorporated into training.

Admit. Do you do all of these things when someone is taught how to do a task? Training isn’t really

difficult, but the trainee has to see the training content, practice it in steps, be given feedback to get it

right, and be rewarded for doing it. Often, the trainee is only told to watch and never gets to try it out or

practice. Or, the trainee is put on the task with no demonstration or explanation; training requires lots

of practice with demonstration and feedback.

Adjust. Self-sabotage in training usually means not doing one or more necessary parts of it. But, if an

employee needs training to perform successfully, and the manager is not supplying it because of time

commitments, lack of training skills, or procrastination, it is self-handicapping. Go back to “Pay me now

or pay me later.” A little work up front in selection and training will save enormous heartache down the

road with most employees.

Key Behaviors. The Key Behaviors for training someone in most tasks are19:

1. Tell the trainee the objective of the task and ask him or her to watch you demonstrate it. 2. Show the trainee how to do it without saying anything. 3. Explain the key points or behaviors (give the trainee the key behaviors written out, if possible). 4. Show the trainee how to do it again.

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

5. Have the trainee do one or more simple parts of the task. If mistakes are made, have the trainee practice until accurate reproduction is achieved.

6. Have the trainee do the entire task and praise him or her for correct reproduction. 7. Praise the trainee for his or her success in learning the task.

Almost all training is based on these principles; they should be incorporated in all on-the-job training. If

they are not used in the expensive training program offered to you - don’t buy it. The only difference

between you and one employee/trainee and the expensive program should be the fancy handouts or

videos.

One important note: you can’t train someone to do something that you can’t write down (or film it) and

describe the steps. So we have given you the chart below complete with an example. This simply helps

you write down the steps in an operation with the key learning points that may be needed to

accomplish each step. Some tasks are cognitive - that is - they are only in our head. Decision-making,

analysis, and auditing are examples. You may think that you can’t use these methods to teach kinds of

skills; but you can. The only things you need besides the key behaviors of training are two things: a list of

questions or decision tree showing the thought process and a number of cases for demonstration and

practice purposes.

HOW TO MAKE A PAPER CUP

Steps in the Operation A logical segment of the operation in which something is done to advance the work.

Key Points Any directions or bits of information that help to perform the step correctly, safely, and easily.

Place 8 ½” x 11” sheet of paper in front of you on flat surface.

Be sure surface is flat, free of interfering objects.

Fold lower left hand corner up. Line up the right hand edges. Make a sharp crease.

Turn paper over. Pick up lower right hand corner with right hand and place it at the top. Folded flap should not be underneath.

Fold excess lower edge up. Line up right hand edges. Fold should line up with bottom edge. Make sharp crease.

Fold lower left hand corner flush with edge A

Keep edges B and C parallel. Hold bottom edge in the center with finger while making fold.

Fold upper corner to point D Hold cup firmly with left hand. Bring upper corner down with right hand.

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Separate lower right hand corner and fold back

Hold cup with left hand. Fold back with right hand. Make sharp creases.

Turn cup over and fold remaining flap back

Make sharp creases

Check cup to be sure it will hold water Open cup and look inside.

Source: Decker PJ &, Nathan B: Behavior Modeling Training: Theory Applications. New York: Praeger, 1985.

Not Paying Attention to Fit of People in the Team/Organization Fit is a very important element of the selection process, and often overlooked. The culture of an

organization will always win. When the new guy comes on board, he is immersed in the organization’s

culture. If his values differ from the organization’s, he will be presented with two options – to leave

(and retain his values) or stay (and accept or buck the system).

Determining whether a specific candidate is the right fit for your organization’s culture is critical and it

can be very challenging to do. To do it, you need to understand your department or organization’s

culture, define what it takes in a candidate to fit into that culture, and of course, determine the

candidate’s values and personality. There are a number of instruments available to assess the culture in

your organization. The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) is a validated instrument

used by many companies worldwide. It takes only a few minutes to measure the current as well as the

preferred culture. Go to http://www.ocai-online.com/ and you can complete this survey for free. It is a

good start, but remember that if completed only by you it is only your opinion of your organization’s

culture.

The next step is to assess your candidate. You need to separate skill and knowledge items that are found

on a resume from the attitude and motivation and self-concept items since you will find fit answers on

the attitude side. None of these steps are easy and they all take time. The Bridgespan Group has a useful

white paper on this topic at http://www.bridgespan.org/Publications-and-Tools/Hiring-Nonprofit-

Leaders/HiringTools/Making-Right-Hire-Assessing-Candidate-Fit.aspx#.UrB_3U2A3y8.

FINAL PERSONAL TAKEAWAYS Action Plan What will you do about your talent management?

http://www.ocai-online.com/

http://www.bridgespan.org/Publications-and-Tools/Hiring-Nonprofit-Leaders/HiringTools/Making-Right-Hire-Assessing-Candidate-Fit.aspx#.UrB_3U2A3y8

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Tunnel Vision Self-Handicap

What is the Situation

Trigger Impact on Others What to Do/When

Hire the “wrong people”

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

Don’t use competencies in the selection process

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

Poor Interviewing skills

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

Not using an Interview Guide

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

Not being on the lookout for promotable employees

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

Avoid coaching/ discipline

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

Avoiding mentoring and sponsoring

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

Permit poor leaders/managers to serve as mentors

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

Don’t pay attention to fit of people within teams/ organization

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

Poor training skills

___Expedient ___Avoiding ___Apprehension ___Self-Deception

___Deliberate Action________ ___Self-efficacy_____________ ___Face it _________________ ___Look & Listen___________

Baby Steps The baby steps for this chapter are:

 Take one job and ask yourself what is the most important competency that leads to satisfied customers. Ask a customer.

 Spend two minutes tomorrow with a random employee – get to know their aspirations.

 Decide who you may consider mentoring. You don’t need to act on it, just think it through and choose a name.

Baby steps for competency determination:

 Choose a job at random.

 List the internal and external customers for that job.

 Choose 1 or 2 important customers.

 Ask what those customers want from that job. Be open; frame this well.

 Step back and ask yourself what motivation, trait, or self-concept traits lead to that outcome.

 Complete the competency chart found above down to the behavior level. Baby steps for time with employees:

 Ask what is happening in their lives.

 Ask about their professional or job concerns. Address them, if possible.

 Recognize good performance.

 Ask one or more questions to begin completing the Talent Chart seen above.

Baby steps to mentoring:

 List current people you know to determine best fit for your mentoring.

 Rank them on trust.

 Ask for each: Are they motivated to succeed and excited to do what it takes to get there? Are they open to learning? Are they confident - it can be a very challenging to build confidence in someone who doesn’t have it? Rank again.

 Determine what you would need to discuss in your first meeting - items such as the frequency of meetings, level of confidentiality, exit plan, etc. Rank one last time.

 Choose a mentee. Follow Up Questions

1. Did you have any mentors? What did you get out of them? Can you pay it forward? 2. Can you identify someone in your organization that would benefit from

mentorship/training/sponsorship? Where would you start?

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

3. How can you improve your personal process of finding promotable employees in your organization?

4. How would an interview guide help you? ENDNOTES

1. Summarized from http://www.inc.com/articles/2004/12/karsh.html, downloaded 4-10-2015.

2. Summarized from

http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703699204575016920463719744, downloaded

4-10-2015.

3. Adapted from http://www.ere.net/2011/03/25/20-reasons-why-weak-managers-never-hire-a-

level-talent/ , downloaded 4-10-2015.

4. Adapted from Peter R. Scholtes, The Leader’s Handbook: A Guide to Inspiring Your People and

Managing the Daily Workflow, p. 43, McGraw-Hill, 1988

5. HBR Blog Network, The Dangers of Codependent Mentoring, by Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries.

December 3, 2013

6. Marrelli AF; Tondora J; Hoge MA. Strategies for developing competency models. Administration

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9. Ibid. See note 8. 10. Jackson, E. Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent. Investing, http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2011/12/14/top-ten-reasons-why-large-companies-fail- to-keep-their-best-talent, 12/14/2011 11. Kaye, Beverly. Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go - Career Conversations Employees Want

(2012). Berrett-Koehler Publishers, http://site.ebrary.com/id/10597156?ppg=1, downloaded 4-10-

2015.

12. Adapted from Cultivate Leaders From Your Existing Talent Crop, March, 2005 edition of the

Jacksonville Business Journal.

13. Adapted from Human Resource Management: Gaining the Competitive Edge [Burr Ridge, IL:

Richard D. Irwin, 1994

14. Ibid. See note 13 15. Ibid. See note 13 16. Taken from https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/human-capital-

management/reference-materials/leadership-knowledge-management/continuouslearning.pdf ,

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17. Taken from Becky J. Starnes, Stephen A. Truhon, and Vikkie McCarthy. Organizational Trust:

Employee- Employer Relationships. ASQ – Human Development and Leadership Division,

http://www.inc.com/articles/2004/12/karsh.html

http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703699204575016920463719744

http://www.ere.net/2011/03/25/20-reasons-why-weak-managers-never-hire-a-level-talent/

http://books.google.com/books?vid=9780805864373

http://site.ebrary.com/id/10597156?ppg=1

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/human-capital-management/reference-materials/leadership-knowledge-management/continuouslearning.pdf

SELF-HANDICAPPING LEADERSHIP: The Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How To Overcome Them

http://asq.org/hdl/2010/06/a-primer-on-organizational-trust.pdfAuthentic trust leads to productive

organizational relationships

18. Ibid. See note 12. 19. Adapted from Decker, PJ. Management MicroTraining, Copyright, 1982, and Decker PJ, Nathan

B: Behavior Modeling Training: Theory and Applications. New York: Praeger, 1985.