Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

Dispelling Common Myths about Likability and Leadership Effectiveness

We're pleased to reprint an article from author, Jim Clemmer. 

By Jim Clemmer

“I don’t care about being liked, I just want to be respected,” is a statement repeated by many less than extraordinary leaders. Trapped in either/or thinking, these narrowly-focused leaders often push hard for results while leaving a trail of damaged relationships and enervated people scattered behind them.

Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, is perpetuating a related gender myth in her new book, Lean In. She relates the story of a woman leader telling her five year-old-daughter that when Daddy does better at work, more people like him. But when Mommy does better at work, fewer people like her. Instead of protesting how unfair that is, the little girl tells her mother she’d try to be less successful so more people would like her. Sandberg cites research, “that success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women.”

But that’s not what our research shows. In their Harvard Business Review blog, “New Research Shows Success Doesn’t Make Women Less Likeable,” Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman report:

“While, certainly, some individual women may find themselves disliked as they move up the organization, our aggregate data show the opposite is more common — that male leaders are perceived more negatively as they rise, whereas women generally maintain their popularity throughout their entire careers.”

The blog displays a graph showing that as men and women move from supervisor to middle manager to senior and top management, both men and women see a small likeability drop initially. But as they move into middle and senior management roles, women recover their likeability somewhat while men do not.

For this study, Zenger Folkman developed a Likability Index that started with “Builds Relationships.” Go to the blog for a link to the ZF 10-item index and come up with your own Likability score.

Being liked and delivering results defines extraordinary leaders consistently rated in the top 10% of our database (now compromised of over 500,000 assessments of 50,000 leaders). Exceptional leaders are very likable. He or she delivers outstanding results and highly engaged employees.

Jack and Joe conclude:

“In order to be an inspiring leader and increase employee satisfaction and engagement a key factor is to be a “likable” leader. Being “likable” isn’t decided by your looks, personality, race, or even gender, it is something that every individual has control over.”

Our upcoming Extraordinary Leader public workshops in Toronto and Calgary are a rare opportunity (we run most sessions inside organizations) to assess your leadership effectiveness and build a strengths-based personal improvement plan.

Reprinted with permission from The Leader Letter, Jim Clemmer's free e-newsletter. For almost thirty years, Jim's 2,000 + practical leadership presentations and workshops/retreats, seven bestselling books, columns, and newsletters have been helping hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. His web site is www.clemmergroup.com

7 Requirements for Excellence in Patient Care

Conversations in Leadership is a Skillsoft webinar series featuring business experts and best-selling authors from the Skillsoft®  Leadership Development Channel™ and  50 Lessons collection.

Join us for a complimentary webinar featuring Nicole Bendaly
Tuesday, June 4, 12-1 p.m. EDT

Considered the perfect companion to your leadership training program, Improving Healthcare Team Performance is a practical handbook that provides the knowledge, tools and techniques required to develop a single team, or to develop an organization-wide, team-based culture from which exceptional patient care emerges.

In this webinar, Bendaly shows you:

• How to define what constitutes a high-performing, patient-focused team
• Guidance on the common healthcare leadership challenges of low morale, poor communication and interpersonal conflict
• Examples of targeted solutions you may be able to start deploying
• Recommendations for how you can affect change at every level of the organization

Register today!

About the speaker

Nicole Bendaly is co-author of The High Performance Healthcare Team: The 7 Requirements for Excellence in Patient Care and has 15 years of experience in organizational behavior.

About the host

Shawn Hunter is author of Out•Think: How Innovative Leaders Drive Exceptional Outcomes (August, 2013) and is Executive Producer and VP of Skillsoft Leadership Development Channel^® and 50 Lessons^®.

2013 Global Skillsoft Perspectives Recap

We’re pleased to bring you a guest post by a Skillsoft Regional Account Executive, Sabrina Smith. Sabrina traditionally recaps Skillsoft Perspectives within her team—this year we’re sharing her point of view on the blog.

By Sabrina Smith, Regional Account Executive, Skillsoft

Greetings to those of you that attended Skillsoft Perspectives— and to those of you that did not!

As I sat on the plane ride home, reflecting on our week together, I jotted down a few highlights to share.  It was interesting to me that many of the sessions shared the same key themes:

• This is the era of learner engagement.
• The business isn’t going to care about learning until learning cares about the business.
• Some measurement is better than no measurement.
• Don’t be afraid of failure; it’s how we learn.

My recap to you is a little tradition I like to call the Post-Perspectives Dénouement, sort of a “Perspectives-in-120-seconds.”  My hope is to continue the conversation we started this week and that you’ll share with me your highlights as well….and for those of you unable to attend, this is my way of bringing Perspectives back home to you.   

Measurement panel discussion

I loved this panel discussion!  It was lively, rich with content, and had the “movie stars” of measurement thought leadership.  The time for viewing L&D as a cost or an activity has passed. We need to view L&D as a business driver and not wait to be asked for results.  Data is just numbers— it’s the metrics that matter.  So if you’re not delivering the “So what?” to your executives, what do you need to do differently?  Kieran’s rally cry to us was “this is no time to think,” but to act and act now, as some measurement is better than no measurement.  Try and “get over being perfect,” as it’s not going to happen, and, after all, you learn from failure.  Laurie Bassi shared with us “Let not the perfect become the enemy of the good.”  We were urged by the panelists to stop using measurement as a defensive crouch but rather as a tool for continuous improvement, and to deliver this news with confidence.

Seth Godin

Seth’s keynote, broadcast live via the Skillsoft® Leadership Development Channel™ and Skillsoft® Leadership Advantage™ (and now available in its recorded format) was a
huge highlight for me.  He shared his thoughts with us on the arrival of the “connection economy,” based on coordination, trust, permission and exchange of ideas.  That it’s the experience we pay for now.  And again a repeated theme of not being afraid of failure. We need to have a willingness to fall and skin our knees.  Seth shared that really all innovation is failing and failing and failing until something works.  Also, what resonated with me was Seth’s assertion that often urgent gets in the way of what’s important.

Professor Peter Cappelli

Professor Cappelli shared his thoughts on how to plan for talent needs and how to think about the fundamental choice between "making" talent from within, "buying" talent from the outside market, or "borrowing" it from staffing firms and other vendors. He also shared the more thoughtful approaches some organizations have adopted to develop people from within by nurturing a culture of continuous development and embedding learning opportunities in-line with work activities.  Clear from his keynote, the real opportunity for talent management is all from within the walls of your organization.

Harry Potter

And of course, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal did not disappoint!  Roller coaster rides galore, no lines, and a great time to relax and have some fun!

In closing, I hope you were also able to take advantage of the tremendous networking opportunities! I left Orlando with a slightly larger circle of connections and business cards.

So, now what?  Seth Godin talked about the crippling effect of inaction and urged us to decide before you go to bed at night which fork in the road you are going to take.  To “dare to fly close to the sun.”  Human capital is a top concern of your CEO today, and learning is at the heart of talent management transformation.  How will you seize this opportunity and embrace your business impact responsibility?  How will “learning transformed” look in your organization?

What will you start doing today? Stop doing today?

Skillsoft’s Conversations in Leadership Series continues its lineup of distinguished experts

We are excited to celebrate the first anniversary of our Conversations in Leadership series! The popular program, which follows a web-based conversation format moderated by Skillsoft’s leadership expert Shawn Hunter, regularly features prominent business experts’ insights on leadership development. The series includes dynamic audience participation through live discussion and boasts an impressive lineup of noted business executives, renowned authors and leadership innovators.

Since its launch in 2012, the series has hosted leading industry experts including executive coach Steve Farber, leadership development duo Bob and Gregg Vanourek and best-selling authors Jim Kouzes, Shawn Achor and Tammy Erickson. Through this diverse lineup of featured experts, Skillsoft is thrilled to provide participants with an inside perspective on popular industry trends and actionable insights to enable leadership development of individuals and their companies. 

In its first year, the positive response to our Conversations in Leadership series has been outstanding, an achievement we are happy to celebrate with the contributing experts whose knowledge and insights are at the heart of the series. We look forward to continuing to grow the interactive program with an elite lineup of industry experts, all dedicated to providing viewers with top-notch content to foster leadership development discussion.

A full archive of Conversations in Leadership webinars can be found here: http://www.skillsoft.com/infocenter/events/web_events.asp#leadership 

For more information on upcoming webinars, please visit: http://skillsoft.com/infocenter/events/web_events.asp#current

Thanks to all who have joined the conversation in our inaugural year – we welcome you to continue engaging with us through future Conversations in Leadership events!

Have a memory of the game before it starts

By Shawn Hunter

Wayne Rooney is widely regarded as an astonishing soccer player—one of the greatest playing the game today. But his behavior is also mercurial, brooding, and even thuggish at times. He was recently banned for a game for intentionally kicking Montenegro’s Miodrag Dzudovic. As a kid he played non-stop—in the streets, in the house, in the backyard. And when he couldn’t play, he dreamed of playing soccer.

Rooney does this today before every match:

“Part of my preparation is I go and ask the kit man what color we’re wearing — if it’s red top, white shorts, white socks or black socks. Then I lie in bed the night before the game and visualize myself scoring goals or doing well. You’re trying to put yourself in that moment and trying to prepare yourself, to have a ‘memory’ before the game. I don’t know if you’d call it visualizing or dreaming, but I’ve always done it, my whole life… you need to visualize realistic things that are going to happen in a game.” (David Winner interview)

If you can actually practice, great. But imagining practicing is just about as good. In a well-known experiment, Australian researcher Alan Richardson divided about 90 students into three groups. With the first group he asked them to ignore basketball and come back at the end of the month. He asked the second group to come into the gym 5 days a week and practice their free throws for twenty minutes, trying to get better at their free throws as best as they could. With the third group he asked them to come into the gym 5 days a week and for twenty minutes imagine shooting free throws — to sit in the gym and visualize each attempt, to develop a pre-shot routine, “see” and “feel” the ball bouncing and then leaving their hand arcing to the basket. If they missed, they had to visualize an adjustment. They were also asked to be constantly getting better.

At the end of the month all three groups had to come into the gym and shoot 100 free throws.

• Group 1 didn’t improve
• Group 2 got 24% better
• Group 3 got 23% better

I had an interview with Rich Herbst, VP for Learning and Leadership Development at Teletech, who emphasized the use of simulations to help develop call center operators to perform better on the job. A former F-14 pilot, Herbst described how he had thousands of hours practicing in simulators and on airfields before he actually landed an F-14 on an aircraft carrier. In our interview he described the experience of landing on a carrier:

“I had done it so much that it was like it was kind of like muscle memory. And so you stop thinking about the stress of what you’re doing, and training takes over. And so I think in the best types of training that you have, regardless of what it is that you’re doing in life, if you can get yourself to a place where you’ve learned it so well that when you experience it in real time.”

Think about what you’re trying to accomplish, or get better at. Are you wishing it, or rehearsing it in your mind, and then actively doing it—prepared to fail or succeed but always learn?

Untangling the training, mentoring, coaching confusion

By Jim Clemmer

For over three decades Jim Clemmer’s keynote presentations, workshops, management team retreats, seven bestselling books, articles, blog and newsletters have helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.The CLEMMER Group is Zenger/Folkman’s Canadian Strategic Partner, an award-winning firm best known for its unique evidence-driven, strengths-based system for developing extraordinary leaders and demonstrating the performance impact they have on organizations. http://www.clemmergroup.com

Like “vision,” “service,” or “leadership,” “coaching” has become a word that means different things to different people.

Many people think of the typical sports coach who’s a veteran of the game (often a retired player). Sports coaches typically develop skills, guide improvements with feedback and actively direct game plans. Other people talk about coaching and mentoring in one phrase as if they were two sides of the same coin. And we know of a few organizations where “coaching” means giving corrective feedback. So having your boss say, “I’d like to give you some coaching” sends shivers up your spine.

This wide range of meanings is one reason that an organizational survey in a large telecom company showed managers scoring themselves high on providing coaching while their employees scored them low.

This chart shows the improvement distinctions we’ve found between three key development activities:

Developing Distinctions
Training	Mentoring	Coaching
Trainer possesses skills or information student lacks.	Senior person conveys wisdom and corporate culture.	Coach could be superior, subordinate or peer.
Primary activity is transmission of information.	Mentor has traveled the path mentee is seeking.	Coach does not need same background or experiences.
Teacher/student relationship is typically temporary and narrow in focus.	Provides connections, references and advice.	Enables others to work through and solve their own problems.

We need all three to lead our teams and organizations to peak performance. But if we’re going to close the big coaching gap we need a clearer and shared understanding of what exactly good coaching is.

Watch Jennifer Kahnweiler, a champion for workplace introverts

Conversations in Leadership is a Skillsoft webinar series featuring business experts and best-selling authors from the Skillsoft®  Leadership Development Channel™ and  50 Lessons collection.

Join us for a complimentary webinar featuring Jennifer Kahnweiler
Tuesday, April 2, 12-1 p.m. EDT

Introverts may feel powerless in a world where extroverts seem to rule, but there’s more than one way to have some sway. As Jennifer Kahnweiler proves in her new book, Quiet Influence: The Introvert's Guide to Making a Difference, scheduled for release in April, introverts can be highly effective influencers when, instead of trying to act like extroverts, they use their natural strengths.

Register for the webinar to learn how to use those strengths to challenge the status quo, provoke new ways of thinking, effect change and inspire others to move forward.

About the speaker
Jennifer Kahnweiler, Ph.D. is an author, speaker and executive coach hailed as a “champion for workplace introverts.” Her bestselling book, The Introverted Leader: Building on Your Quiet Strength has achieved widespread appeal and was translated into six languages including Chinese and Spanish.

Registration closes on Friday, March 29 at 5 p.m. EDT. Register today!

View last month’s webinar featuring Bob and Gregg Vanourek discussing their book, Triple Crown Leadership. 

Skillsoft announces diverse lineup of live and interactive leadership events

We are excited to announce the schedule for our next four Live Events! Available to customers of Skillsoft’s Leadership Development Channel and 50 Lessons and Skillsoft Leadership Advantage, these events provide subscribers with cutting-edge thinking in business and leadership through live and interactive presentations.

Over the course of the next few months, we look forward to hearing presentations from some of the most recognized and sought-after thought leaders and best-selling authors, including Susan Cain, John Kao, Seth Godin and Charles Duhigg.

The Live Events series gives us the opportunity to offer our customers rich content and conversations from distinguished industry thought leaders, which is a testament to our goal of providing our valued customers the tools they need to maximize leadership skills and inspire positive change, growth and innovation across the workplace. We hope that you will tune in and engage with our community!

The upcoming Live Events schedule includes:

• March 19 at 12:00 p.m. EDT (Broadcast from New York, NY) – Quiet: How to Harness the Strengths of Introverts to Change How We Work, Lead, and Innovate by Susan Cain, best-selling author. Drawing on her original research and the latest in neuroscience and psychology, Susan will radically change views of the best way to develop leaders, manage teams, make smart hires and stimulate innovation.

• April 16 at 12:00 p.m. EDT (Broadcast from Washington D.C.) – Jamming: The Art of Getting Innovation Done by John Kao, innovation activist and best-selling author. Using a piano to illustrate how jazz is a guiding metaphor for business, John will "jam" on stage during the live webcast and share the keys to innovation that he taught at Harvard University.

• May 14 at 11:00 a.m. EDT (Broadcast from Orlando, FL at 2013 Global Skillsoft Perspectives) – Pick Yourself: Success, Impact and Relevance in the Creative Economy by Seth Godin, best-selling author, entrepreneur and marketing expert. Seth will share his vision of the new economy and how professionals can draw out those discretionary qualities of initiative, creativity and passion of themselves and from those within their organizations to build competitive advantage in this turbulent marketplace.

Hiring for service, not servitude

By Shawn Hunter

Finding people who will bring a fresh perspective and yet work well within a team is a challenge. For a team to be successful, each member must bring a combination of skill, belief in the team’s mission, and the ability to collaborate. Someone with skills who lacks belief in the mission is a flight risk, and the prima donna who refuses to collaborate can squander the potential synergy of the team effort.

I interviewed Morgans Hotel Group CEO Fred Kleisner in the basement nightclub of their New York City property, The Hudson. We had to do some creative camera framing and lighting since the walls were covered with vintage 1970s and 80s pin-up posters. Kleisner, hip and cool himself, has the enviable job of running some of the coolest, hippest hotel properties in the world. When it comes to hiring, Kleisner says Morgans is interested in someone’s whole personality and all their strengths. Instead of a traditional interview, the company has “casting calls” in theatres. After a standard question and answer session, candidates are invited to get up on stage and share anything they want, with an emphasis on something that expresses who they are at heart. As he described:

Achieve exceptional performance with integrity and sustainability

In today's fiercely competitive world, it takes more than "business as usual" to stay strong and stay ahead of the curve. It takes Triple Crown Leadership. Inspired by the most elusive championship in sports, the Triple Crown of horseracing, this compelling road map is designed for leaders at all levels, from supervisors to CEOs.

Attend a webinar on March 5 Featuring Bob and Gregg Vanourek discussing their book Triple Crown Leadership

During the webinar, father and son team, Bob and Gregg Vanourek will discuss lessons learned from their experiences interviewing over sixty organizations in eleven countries, including Zappos, Google, eBay, Infosys, Xerox, Spotify, Mayo Clinic, KIPP, Ashoka and more. They’ll show you how to achieve high performance, integrity and sustainability at your organization.

Register today!

Conversations in Leadership is a Skillsoft webinar series featuring business experts and best-selling authors from the Skillsoft®  Leadership Development Channel™ and  50 Lessons collection.

Speakers:

Bob Vanourek has led global New York Stock Exchange companies, including Sensormatic and Recognition Equipment, through transformational turnarounds as CEO. He is a featured speaker on leadership and consults with numerous boards, businesses and community organizations.

Gregg Vanourek teaches at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship and the Royal Institute of Technology. Gregg is a featured speaker and trainer for clients worldwide. Previously, he served as a senior executive at K12, New Mountain Ventures, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and research fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Shawn Hunter is Executive Producer for the Skillsoft Leadership Development Channel (LDC) and 50 Lessons, live and on-demand video learning portfolios with a focus on leadership. LDC is a product Shawn originally created while President and co-founder of Targeted Learning Corporation, acquired by Skillsoft in February, 2007.