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September 15, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Leadership Training Secrets for Executives

Research by Gallup reveals that up to 70 percent of employee engagement depends on the influence and behavior of the manager. That is, management engagement drives employee engagement. As the saying goes, employees quit managers, not companies. This same Gallup study also found that executive teams who actively work with management will increase their engagement by up approximately 40 percent. Executives can create a positive domino effect through senior leaders by following the advice below.

Maximize Management’s Potential

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) states that there are key factors required for building high-performance teams. These factors include diverse expertise, mutual accountability, trustful interdependence, recognizable responsibilities, ambitious performance goals and commitment to the mission. Executives almost always require managers to use these factors to create employee teams, but how often do they use these same principles to develop management teams with strong cohesion, collaboration and communication? Well-trained management teams who are united in purpose and function will successfully meet goals, drive change, forecast problems and elicit employee engagement.

Create a Strong HR Brand

Most people think that HR exists to just conduct transactional functions that fill positions, create policies and maintain compliance. Modern HR leaders are strategic business partners who directly impact workforce strength, risk management and a company’s overall performance. HR leaders must be treated as key stakeholders who drive talent expertise, succession planning, employee engagement and staff development. Some HR leaders may struggle to transition from a traditional personnel function into a dynamic role, but executives can help them improve their leadership skills, reformat their thinking patterns and challenge existing training standards. Thoughtful executives will use valuable HR resources to find the best leaders who transform their passions into vibrant business functions.

Leverage Ancient Wisdom

Many inspirational speakers like to quote Sun Zi’s The Art of War, but there are many relevant and insightful texts that translate well into the business world. For example, Forbes magazine recommends the classic Chinese military text The 36 Stratagems. Unlike The Art of War that focuses on deceit, spying and misdirection, it provides tactics for winning, attacking, gaining ground, defeating enemies and managing chaos. Alternatively, The Book of Five Rings by the Ronin Miyamoto Musashi is a classic Japanese military text that defines a philosophic code of conduct and way of thinking. This book succinctly explains the intricacies of various strategies that can be applied to the modern business world.

As a final note, the most effective leaders will understand and respect their followers’ needs in order to establish stability, cultivate trust and refine performance.

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

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August 4, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

C-Suite Reading List: 9 Leadership Books You Need to Be Reading

What does it take to be a great leader? How can you invoke your team’s best qualities? How can you create the best team for your organization? We have a few ideas to help you get started! Here’s a list of amazing books on leadership, from this year alone, that will cultivate your skills.

1. Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace By Christine Porath

Christine Porath, a Georgetown MBA professor, based her book on research and explains how you can be a more effective leader. She details the precise daily events that chip away at the heart of a team. The book teaches leaders on how to identify and put an end to destructive trends and become the leader your team needs to be its most productive.

2. Option B By Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook co-authored this book with Adam Grant a Wharton professor. It’s unclear who does the heavy lifting, as it speaks as a single voice. Option B tackles the hardships many leaders face. The stress of leadership can be grueling, but how do you overcome it? This book is your answer, to staying a leader despite the stresses you face.

3. Radical Candor By Kim Scott

Kim Scott, a former Google executive is currently a CEO coach in Silicon Valley. She believes we should be using candor when evaluating performance. In her book, she expresses the idea of a sweet spot between being an aggressive leader and a nice leader.

4. The Power of Positive Leadership by Jon Gordon

What is the best approach to being a great leader? What does it take? In this book, Jon Gordon explains you can untie your team through adversity with positive leadership and create a better company culture. Read this book to see how you can employ these tactics to your team.

5. The Captain Class: The Driving Force Behind the World’s Greatest Teams By Sam Walker

This book employs the ideas on how great sports team operate. No one can argue that sports definitely create an environment for great teamwork. What leadership qualities create an environment to get more from your team and improve the cooperation of its members? This book touches on unconventional methods that you can use for your leadership arsenal.

6. The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You And Your Greatness by Lolly Daskal

In this book, Daskal shares patterns of powerful leaders and their obstacles to achieving greatness. Find out what your leadership archetype is, and discover incredible insights shared in the book about industry leaders, board room meetings. Apply her system for proven business results.

7. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek

Sinek is no stranger to leadership, as evidenced by his critically acclaimed books and TED Talks all on the subject of leadership. In his latest book, Sinek explains how great leaders inspire action within their teams by building an atmosphere of group cohesion.

8. Leadership: The 100 Best Ways To Be A Great Leader by Ace McCloud

This book is perfect for those searching for real ways to learn about being a great leader. McCloud’s book will help you discover your strengths and work on your weaknesses to become a more effective leader. The strategies, tips, and best practices highlighted by this book will work their way into your life through hard work and practice.

9. POWER OVER THE PILLOW: 7 SECRETS TO MASTER YOUR GOALS, ACHIEVE SUCCESS AND BECOME UNSTOPPABLE: Create More Time, Develop Habits and Systems That Win by Stephen Toroni

Toroni’s book is great for creating strategic plans to achieve your goals and improve your leadership skills. Complete activities and learn step-by-step ways to accomplish your goals and take control over your outcomes. Don’t let the All-Caps title scare you, Toroni isn’t mad, he just writes that way!

These, of course, are not all the great leadership books of 2017, especially since we haven’t even finished the year. This is just a collection of the best books out this year to help hone your skills and to create a better year for your company and your career. Have I missed any?

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July 7, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Today’s Managing Leader

Recently, I heard someone say, “All you need to run an organization efficiently is great management —forget leadership.” While this may work for some teams, most need both. Can you have one without the other, and continue to grow? Let’s look at the characteristics of both leadership and management.

Traits: Management VS Leadership

● Management can be defined as a set of processes that allow an organization to continue functioning.

● Leadership, conversely, requires an influencer or someone to lead the group towards the achievement of their goals.

● Management tends to be focused on the bottom line.

● Leaders motivate people who will then deliver the processes that lead to the bottom line.

● Managers are great at figuring out the best forms of control that leads to efficient completion of tasks.

● Leaders inspire a collective vision.

● Managers rely on duty.

● Leaders rely on trust.

● Leaders command respect.

● Managers require it.

As I mentioned, leadership and management need not be disparate or even separate. If you look at management as your “job,” then you can consider leadership your “role.“

Does it Have to Be One-way or the Other

There will be days as a manager when you need your team to put in some extra effort; whether that means coming in early or working late. There will be times that you need members of your team to perform duties outside of their job description. This takes leadership. Leadership is a team game, and real leaders make great team players because of their ability to understand and connect with people around them. Leaders help organizations and individuals to grow and develop personally. As a manager, your greatest accomplishment comes from making work processes more efficient, saving money, and increasing productivity. Both leaders and managers are valuable to the organization.

“Leadership is an art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.” ~Colin Powell

In this time of frequent disruptions, technological advancement, and the increasingly complex and volatile business environment, the need to demonstrate goal-aligned leadership and management has never been more critical for success. To build our businesses, we need to harness our passion and vision with disciplined processes. For an organization to achieve high results, both leadership and management need to be present in each of us.

In Conclusion

With excellent management and no leadership, the team will lack the motivation needed to pursue and reach goals. Additionally, without essential management skills, the direction set by a leader may be unsustainable. How you strike a balance between management and leadership depends on your industry and your company culture, however, it is possible to meld the two.

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June 23, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

Executive Search: Tips and Best Practices for Avoiding the Bad Hire

Even the most experienced HR pro has fallen victim to the perfectly polished candidate. “Hiring blindness,” some people call it —when taken in by a great series of interviews with a candidate that has already passed the screening process. So, how can you keep from being fooled?

Why Didn’t I See That?

There are many reasons why you might overlook the best prospect and choose the absolute worst.

Interview prowess
Cultural Chameleon
Dishonesty
Hasty decision-making

In retrospect, many hiring managers realize that they just failed to recognize a flaw that was evident. When an interviewer misses a big red flag, it is usually because the candidate has stellar interviewing skills. The pitfall here is that skills of any kind can be learned. In fact, currently, Google returns over 24 million results around the keywords “how to ace an interview.” With a little research, prospects can uncover the most frequently asked interview questions for every position ever hired for. Reputable websites such as CNN and Forbes even give their readers an edge by listing the “perfect way to answer” standard interview questions. So, unless you are a human lie detector, you are positioned to be fooled.

Due Diligence is Important

So, it stands to reason that if candidates are so bold as to lie to your face, they may also lie on paper. But with some due diligence, you can verify references, job history, and education. As an executive search professional with more than a decade of experience, I can tell you that this is essential. According to Forbes, 40% of all managers fail in the first 18 months of their hire. Due diligence throughout the entire recruitment process is necessary to avoid making costly hiring decisions.

The Financial Cost of a Bad Hire

How much does making a bad hiring decision cost your organization? The Department of Labor estimates the amount to be roughly equal to 30 percent of that employee’s salary their first year. CareerBuilder data shows that 41 percent of the employers they surveyed said that each bad hire could cost as much as $25,000, while 25 percent said the costs were closer to $50,000 for each hire.

These figures don’t even take into account the non-monetary losses such as damaged reputation, declining morale, and overall loss of productivity. Research by GlassDoor indicates that a bad hire can negatively impact the company culture as well, causing widespread employee disengagement.

Executive Recruitment Tips

Hiring an experienced executive search professional is the most efficient way to ensure you are getting not only the best and brightest candidates but also the most qualified and well-vetted. Here are a few other tips to fortify your hiring process.

Tip #1 Create a documented process. Without an organized approach, candidates will slip through the cracks in your process. While some steps of the hiring process are more important than others, important and critical information can be uncovered at each phase.

Tip #2 Don’t take anything at face-value. Every detail has to be verified. Shortcuts in this area will only lead to disappointment. Follow up with all references. Make it a point to speak (voice to voice) with at least two individuals who had leadership positions over the candidate.

Tip #3 Start with credential checks. By checking credentials, including employment history and dates, before you bring a candidate in for an interview, you can establish a baseline of honesty and credibility. In some cases, it may be a good idea to check references before interviewing. If you have a large pool of seemingly qualified candidates, this may be the best way to determine eligibility.

Tip #4 Utilize behavioral interviewing techniques. As I mentioned, interview skills can be learned. Answers to theoretical questions can be rehearsed. Instead, have the candidate tell you about real-world scenarios they have encountered and discuss how they dealt with those situations.

Tip #5 Don’t be swayed by appearance and personality. An executive may see an impressive looking and dynamic candidate and forgive inconsistencies or fail to ask the appropriate follow-up questions.

When a Bad Interview isn’t The End

We are all human. We have all had bad days and bad interviews. One of the most valuable lessons I have learned in my years in this industry is this: a bad interview doesn’t mean anything. It’s not surprising that some job seekers, even executive candidates find interviews stressful and have difficulty relaxing. Many find it difficult to allow their real personality come through. They recognize that there’s a lot on the line during these brief meetings.

This is where your interview skills are put to the test! When I find myself in a bad interview, I make every effort to put the candidate at ease so that they may reveal what he or she would be like as an employee. Just as you wouldn’t want to hire someone on the basis of a single factor, you also don’t want to eliminate the person too hastily because of a less-than-ideal interview demeanor.

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June 9, 2017 by ken@prime-core.com Ken Dropiewski

How to Build a Culture of Thought Leaders

According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary,

“Culture is the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends on man’s capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.”

This definition also accurately sums up the components of an enduring corporate culture. Let’s look at how this pertains to creating a culture of experts and thought leadership within your company. Keep in mind, that an organization’s unique knowledge base is built upon the experiences of its most productive members. This group of individuals represents the vanguard of organizational experts.

How to Create a Culture of Experts and Thought Leaders

An important question is: How do we create a culture of experts to collect and share our knowledge for improved productivity and profitability? Here are are few ways you can build a culture of experts that uses your most capable staff to improve performance, increase productivity, and to keep critical knowledge within the organization.

Identify Your Experts and Establish Mentorship

Begin by identifying your most productive and knowledgeable employees; this is the core of your culture. This group represents the critical knowledge and business practices that must be retained by the company regardless of turnover. Use this group of experts as coaches and mentors for other employees within their area of expertise, beginning the process of converting their knowledge into a shared resource.

McKinsey & Company emphasize the importance of choosing the right metrics to reap the most benefit from coaching. Although those metrics will vary widely by industry, they must reflect the most important specific skills that employees need to fulfill their roles. Your coaches will spread the new culture by transmitting their knowledge, increasing employee engagement, and ultimately creating more experts in your organization.

The role of your core group may change, but it won’t diminish. As the organization grows and evolves, these are the employees who will make transitions smooth by consistently improving their skill set and bringing others up to speed.

Emphasize Learning with Knowledge Management (KM)

An effective KM strategy will distinguish between tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is what individual employees possess; conversely explicit knowledge is available for everyone in the company to use. To create a culture of experts, tacit knowledge must become explicit. The most efficient way to accomplish this is by promoting information sharing among employees.

For practical use and retention of critical business knowledge, there must be an emphasis on becoming a learning-based organization. Encouraging the acquisition and sharing of information between all employees is essential to mitigate the loss of tribal knowledge that comes with the departure of key staff.

Standardize the Language

If your culture is to be successful, the members of your organization need to speak the same language and share the same core values. A culture’s language is essentially the values and core principles critical to your company’s success and an important element in making it durable.

Aligning organizational language, values, and principles will make the culture cohesive ensuring that everyone is on the same page and understands what is expected of them.

Documenting this information will make it tangible, and provide a stable foundation to build on. Bear in mind that a degree of malleability must be factored in so that the culture can adapt to changes in both business and employees.

Reward and Recognize

Reward your employees for sharing valuable information. There are few better ways to reward an employee than by recognition; use an employee of the month system or recognition board. Your staff will become more engaged, and intra-company competition will encourage ever-increasing levels of participation.

Model The Culture You are Creating

One of the best ways to encourage compliance among your employees is to lead by example. Take an active part in the culture of experts that you’ve created, be in the forefront of implementation; whether it’s by coaching/mentoring your managers, use of collaboration tools or personally taking care of the reward program. Demonstrate your commitment to the organization by embracing the culture of experts you’ve created.

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” Steve Jobs, founder of Apple

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